The rebels who overthrew the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December have vowed to unify their country. However persistent outbreaks of sectarian violence have stoked fears amongst Syria’s many minority teams that the nation’s new authorities, which principally belongs to the Sunni Arab majority, is not going to or can’t defend them from extremist teams in Syria.
Dozens of individuals had been killed in late April when Islamist fighters attacked neighborhoods round Damascus, the capital, that are dwelling to many within the nation’s Druse minority. On Wednesday, Israel launched airstrikes and threatened to strike Syrian authorities forces in protection of the Druse.
The assaults got here two months after 1000’s of extremist fighters killed round 1,600 individuals principally from the nation’s Alawite minority on the Syrian coast, in response to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war-monitoring group primarily based in Britain.
A few of these fighters gave the impression to be among the many extra extremist factions of the insurgent coalition that toppled the Assad regime, in response to conflict displays. Regardless of the brand new authorities’ guarantees to combine all insurgent factions into a brand new nationwide military, lots of the extra extremist armed teams stay outdoors the federal government’s management.
A number of outstanding Syrian minorities — together with the Druse, the Alawites and the Kurds — have additionally fashioned armed teams of their very own. Each the Druse and the Kurds established militias throughout the nation’s nearly-14-year civil conflict and haven’t laid down their arms for the reason that conflict ended. Some Alawite former members of the Assad regime have additionally taken up arms towards the brand new authorities.
Right here’s what to find out about Syria’s various minority communities.
Druse
The Druse, who’re a big minority in Syria and in a number of neighboring nations, follow a centuries-old offshoot of Islam.
A number of highly effective Druse militias with tens of 1000’s of fighters successfully management the rugged province of Sweida, southwest of the capital. Sweida is the heartland of the Druse and a strategically vital area bordering Jordan and close to Israel.
Many Druse additionally dwell in cities on the outskirts of Damascus. The outbreak of violence this week in two of these areas, Jaramana and Sahnaya, erupted after an audio clip circulated on social media purporting to be of a Druse cleric insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The cleric denied the accusation, and Syria’s Inside Ministry stated its preliminary findings confirmed that he was not the individual within the clip.
Israel’s authorities has shut relations with the Druse neighborhood in Israel and has supplied to guard the Druse in Syria ought to they arrive underneath assault. Many outstanding Syrian Druse leaders have rejected Israel’s provide.
Alawites
About 10 percent of Syrians belong to the Alawite sect, which is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
The Assad household is Alawite, and through its 5 a long time ruling Syria, it usually prioritized members of the Alawite neighborhood in safety and army jobs. Many Sunnis affiliate the Alawites with the outdated regime and its brutal assaults on their communities throughout the nation’s civil conflict. Some Sunni extremists and overseas jihadists, who fought alongside the rebels throughout the conflict, additionally contemplate Alawites to be heretics.
The Alawites are predominately targeting Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
A bout of sectarian violence on the coast broke out in March, after armed teams affiliated with the ousted Assad regime launched a coordinated attack on the brand new authorities’s forces within the space. The federal government then despatched reinforcements to the area.
Within the chaos, 1000’s of different extremist fighters and armed civilians flooded to the coast and carried out a killing spree concentrating on Alawites. It was the deadliest outbreak of sectarian violence for the reason that rebels seized energy and highlighted how tenuous the federal government’s management is over the nation.
The Kurds, who make up about 10 % of Syria’s inhabitants, are one in all Syria’s largest ethnic minorities. With U.S. help, they’ve for years run an autonomous area in northeastern Syria, an space with a blended inhabitants of Arabs and Kurds. There are additionally large Kurdish populations in Turkey, Iraq and Iran, however there isn’t any nation with a Kurdish majority.
The Kurdish-led militia that governs a lot of northeastern Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces, agreed in March to integrate its military and other institutions, together with its prized oil and fuel fields, underneath the central authorities’s management by yr’s finish. It was a significant breakthrough for the brand new Syrian president, Ahmed al-Shara.
However amongst Syria’s Kurds, suspicion of the nation’s new management runs deep. Mr. al-Shara and different former rebels had been as soon as affiliated with Al Qaeda, which fought towards the Kurds in Syria and Iraq. Some Kurds are additionally cautious as a result of the brand new authorities is aligned with its highly effective neighbor, Turkey, which considers Syria’s Kurds to be allied with Kurdish militants inside Turkey.
For the previous a number of years, Turkey has been launching air assaults on Syrian Kurdish-led forces throughout the border and has additionally supported Syrian proxy forces towards the Kurds. The Turkish army stored up some airstrikes even after Mr. al-Shara and the S.D.F. chief, Mazloum Abdi, signed the merger accord, although it has since suspended the assaults.
Members of the Kurdish-led regional authorities have described the settlement as merely a primary step.
Christians
The Christian inhabitants of Syria dates again 1000’s of years. The Bible says that after the apostle Paul was struck blind on the highway to Damascus, God directed him to “the Avenue Known as Straight,” which nonetheless exists.
Christians had been about 10 % of Syria’s inhabitants of 21 million earlier than the conflict started in 2011. As of 2022, they accounted for about 5 %, with fewer than 700,000 left, in response to teams that monitor the persecution of Christians all over the world.
In some small cities with blended populations, like Maaloula in western Syria, lots of the Muslims backed the rebels within the civil conflict, whereas the Christians largely stood by Mr. al-Assad, whom they thought of the protector of Syria’s minorities in a Sunni-majority nation.
This yr, Easter passed without incident within the historic coronary heart of Damascus, the place a traditionally Christian quarter generally known as Bab Touma homes church buildings of at the least a half-dozen totally different denominations.
