AP photograph.
Israel carried out an airstrike close to Syria’s presidential palace throughout the early hours of Friday, following their warning to Syrian authorities concerning actions in the direction of villages populated by a minority sect in southern Syria.
The strike occurred after a number of days of violent encounters between pro-government forces and Druze minority fighters close to Damascus, leading to quite a few casualties and accidents. Syria’s Druze non secular chief has condemned a “genocidal marketing campaign” in opposition to his neighborhood after sectarian clashes killed 102 individuals.
Israel sees the brand new forces in Syria as jihadists and has warned them to guard the Druze minority, with defence minister Israel Katz saying his nation may in any other case reply “with important drive”. The violence poses a severe problem to the Islamist authorities in Syria who ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.
This Friday’s assault, the second Israeli strike on Syria this week, focused an space close to the presidential palace, seemingly conveying a stern message to Syria’s new Islamist management, primarily managed by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, the Druze non secular chief, on Thursday severely condemned the Syrian authorities for what he termed an “unjustified genocidal assault” on their neighborhood.
In keeping with the Israeli army’s assertion, their fighter jets focused an space adjoining to President Hussein al-Sharaa’s Palace in Damascus, with out offering extra data.
Syrian pro-government media reported that the strike landed close to the Individuals’s Palace located on a hill overlooking Damascus.
The battle ignited round midnight Monday following the circulation of an audio recording on social media containing criticism of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, attributed to a Druze cleric. Nonetheless, cleric Marwan Kiwan denied accountability for the controversial audio in a social media video.
Syria’s data ministry confirmed 11 safety personnel deaths in two separate incidents, whereas The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 56 fatalities in Sahnaya and Jaramana, together with native fighters and safety forces.
The Druze spiritual neighborhood, which emerged as a Tenth-century offshoot of Ismailism inside Shiite Islam, contains roughly a million members worldwide, with over half residing in Syria, primarily in Sweida province and Damascus suburbs.
The remaining Druze inhabitants is distributed between Lebanon and Israel, together with the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria throughout the 1967 Mideast Conflict and subsequently annexed in 1981.
