In every single place within the Syrian metropolis of Jaramana on Wednesday, there have been armed males, their actions staccato with rigidity.
There have been males in denims or the black saggy pants historically worn by the Druse sect, rifles slung throughout their chests; males of no specific uniform blocking the roads into city; males with vests filled with ammunition motioning tersely to at least one one other. They had been too preoccupied even to smoke.
The explanation lay inside a Druse spiritual corridor: seven velvet-draped coffins, surrounded by a whole bunch of sobbing ladies in white shawls. They held aloft the photographs of seven males killed when assailants believed to be Islamist extremists attacked Jaramana with gunfire and shelling on Tuesday morning.
Even because the funeral processions received underway, the lads guarding them had been receiving messages about spreading clashes and rising loss of life tolls in a largely Druse city close by.
Whereas a number of vehicles bearing the brand of the Syrian safety forces circulated within the metropolis and neighborhood leaders stated authorities forces had fashioned a cordon round Jaramana, many of the males with weapons — together with most of these killed — had been residents who had organized to defend themselves, locals stated.
“We’re not seeing something from the federal government,” stated Ghassan Azzam, who was standing within the crowd exterior the cemetery. “We’re simply defending ourselves.”
The clashes in Jaramana and Ashrafieh Sahnaya, each south of Damascus, the capital, had been the most recent surge in violence in opposition to Syrian spiritual minorities for the reason that half-century-old regime of Bashar al-Assad and his household collapsed in December.
The brand new authorities, dominated by Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority, has promised inclusivity for the nation’s minority teams and has at instances stepped up safety for them. However many minority Syrians say the federal government has squandered a lot of its credibility amid repeated assaults on minority areas, together with the massacres in March of civilians in Syria’s coastal area, the heartland of the Alawite minority, by extremist fighters affiliated with the insurgent coalition that seized energy.
“Both the federal government is popping a blind eye, or it doesn’t have the capability to regulate anybody,” stated Rabee Mounzer, a Druse neighborhood chief in Jaramana, after the funerals on Wednesday. “Both method, the federal government is accountable.”
He, like many others, feared a repeat of the coastal killings.
This week’s violence erupted early Tuesday after an audio clip circulated on social media purporting to be of a Druse cleric insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The cleric, who was later cleared by Syria’s Inside Ministry, denied involvement — however not earlier than incensed Muslims started threatening the Druse, who follow a secretive offshoot of Islam.
“Due to one voice message, a voice message we don’t even know from whom, all of Syria got here to assault,” Mr. Mounzer stated. “That is unbelievable. It reveals you ways persons are divided.”
Armed males on motorbikes opened fireplace on a checkpoint run by authorities safety forces on the japanese aspect of city at 2 a.m. Tuesday, killing two Jaramana residents, stated Ahmed Dawoud, 52, who later joined the fray.
At 5:30 a.m. that very same day, after extra civilians from Jaramana arrived to defend the checkpoint, dozens of armed males shouting, “God is nice” and carrying Islamic patches attacked, in accordance with Mr. Dawoud and one other resident, Mazen Ghazzar.
Seven Jaramana males had been killed, together with eight attackers, they stated. Once they searched the attackers’ our bodies, they stated, they discovered an identification card, dated September 2023, with an administrative stamp from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the group that led the riot that captured Damascus in December. It was not clear whether or not the attacker was a part of the federal government’s army.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which evolved from a group as soon as affiliated with Al Qaeda, has been absorbed into the brand new authorities’s safety forces. Not all of its fighters have joined, and an array of other former rebels, some with extra brazenly extremist ideology, stay exterior authorities management.
Even throughout Syria’s 14-year civil struggle, residents stated, there had by no means been sectarian violence in Jaramana, the place Druse reside alongside Christians and Muslims.
However Syria’s longstanding taboo in opposition to discussing sectarian identification now gave the impression to be fading day by day.
“We don’t know why they did this to us; we’ve all coexisted for many years,” stated Laureen al-Halabi, one of many a whole bunch of Druse ladies gathered within the spiritual corridor to mourn on Wednesday.
In Jaramana, many appeared decided to work throughout sectarian traces to defend the city.
“It’s not about being a Druse or not,” stated Issam al-Mortada, a Christian, exterior the cemetery, the place males waved colourful Druse striped silk flags and chanted slogans in assist of Jaramana. “Weapons don’t distinguish between us.”
A Sunni Muslim girl was killed on Tuesday inside her house by a gunshot that residents stated got here from exterior Jaramana.
On Wednesday, many residents stated they’d not slept from worry or had taken shelter with family or buddies. Most retailers and colleges had been closed. As night time fell, a curfew took impact.
Officers say the preliminary attackers had been religiously motivated fighters unaffiliated with the federal government. Neighborhood leaders stated authorities representatives had informed them the identical.
Authorities officers had been “very respectful and optimistic,” stated Majed Salloum, one other neighborhood chief. “However we wish motion.”
