Syria top Muslim cleric warns against ‘strife’ amid sectarian clashes

DAMASCUS: Syria’s top Muslim cleric warned on Wednesday against “strife” after deadly sectarian clashes erupted between security forces and local Druze fighters near Damascus this week.

“If strife ignites in our country... all of us — all races, all religions, all sects — all of us will lose,” Grand Mufti Osama Al Rifai said in a televised speech.

Syrian security forces were yesterday deployed near Damascus to “restore security”, state media reported.

Security official Hussam Al Tahan told state news agency Sana that forces completed a “security operation” in the Sahnaya area and that General Security personnel deployed there to “restore security and stability”.

Syria’s interior ministry said that 16 security personnel had been killed in clashes that erupted overnight near Damascus.

“Outlaw groups” attacked government positions and checkpoints near the town of Sahnaya, the ministry said in a statement, killing “11 members of forces from the General Security department”, with five more killed in an attack on a different position.

Earlier, Israel’s army chief ordered the military to prepare to strike targets belonging to the Syrian government if the Druze community faced more violence, the military said.

Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir “instructed the IDF (military) to prepare to strike targets belonging to the Syrian regime should violence against Druze communities continue”, the military said, hours after it struck an “extremist group” in the area of Damascus that it said was preparing to attack the Druze.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel carried out a strike in Syria on an “extremist group” preparing to attack members of the Druze community in the Damascus region.

“The IDF (military) carried out a warning action and struck the organisation of an extremist group preparing to attack the Druze population in the town of Sahnaya, in the Damascus region of Syria,” said a statement from the Israeli leader’s office.

“A stern message was conveyed to the Syrian regime - Israel expects them to act to prevent harm to the Druze community,” it added, referring to Syria’s new Islamist government.

Sahnaya is around 15 kilometres (nine miles) southwest of the Syrian capital and is home to residents from Syria’s Druze and Christian minorities.

The Israeli strike came as sectarian clashes between forces linked to Syria’s new authorities and Druze fighters spread near Damascus, leaving 13 people dead, according to state media and a Syrian war monitor.

The Druze are mainly divided between Syria, Israel and Lebanon, comprising about three percent of Syria’s population, with a heavy concentration in the south.