Fatal collisions in the Druzen areas of Syria raise the fear of broadening unrest

Deadly collisions between Islamistic armed factions, security forces and hunters from the Druzen-religious minority near Damascus are another sign of the continuous fragility of the safety situation in Syria after the overriding of Bashar al-Assad.

External players have been involved again, where Israel said it has performed air strikes to protect Druze citizens.

It marks another error line in Syria, which is broken and divided into the aftermath of 13 years of destructive civil war and decades of authoritarian rule by the Assad dynasty.

The new Syrian authorities have said that they are determined to bring unity and stability, but many inside and outside the country still indicate their roots in jihadism and remain suspicious of their agenda.

Before President Assad was overthrown, his rule had been restored to the most important cities in Syria and along the highways between them – as well as the coastal area of ​​the Alawitic cult to which his family belongs.

But there were other regions partially or almost completely out of control.

They include Idlib in the north, from where the current leader of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaa his Islamist rebelfactie Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)-a former al-Qaida branch-for led the victory.

In the northeast, Syrian Kurdish troops maintained semi-autonomy during the civil war and then.

And south of Damascus, the Druze have also had limited autonomy.

Those divisions continue to exist, although the Alawite areas are now the most serious flash points for the new rulers of Syria.

In March, days of fighting between security forces and hunters still loyal to Assad had hundreds of people dead, including civilians. Other armed factions that are loosely affiliated with the new authorities also became involved and performed revenge killings against local alawites.

Such violence is the greatest fear of both those who support Sharaa and those who are against him.

The latest collisions south of Damascus were again combat on fighters of various armed factions who are still active in Syria and De Druze. Their religion is a spur of Islam, with considerable communities, not only in Syria, but also in Lebanon, Jordan and Israel.

It is the connection with Israel that the Air Force of the Land has encouraged to perform various strikes during fighting in and around the city of Ashrafiyat Sahnaya on Wednesday.

The Israeli government said the operation was a warning and demanded that the Syrian authorities prevent damage to the druzen.

The Syrian authorities said that security forces were used in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya to restore safety and stability, and accused what the “Outlaw Groups” called, based on setting up the collisions.

But the spiritual leader of the Druze community of Syria, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, condemned the violence as a “non-justified genocidal campaign” and said that people had defended their houses against attacks by extremists.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 101 people were killed this week in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, the mainly Druze -Bouterwijk of Jaramana and the southern province of Suweida, who has a druze -majority.

The monitoring group established in the United Kingdom said that 71 members of the Druze community include, including 10 civilians and 35 shooters who were shot in a “ambush” while they traveled from Suweida to Damascus on Wednesday, as well as 30 members of the security troops and allied armed groups.

For the time being, the violence has at least decreased, reportedly agreed with the government -furen with local Druze leaders.

But the suddenness and cruelty with which the collisions burst – it seems that it seems through an audio recording circulating on social media from a man who insults the prophet Mohammed, falsely attributed to a Druze -spiritual – shows the potential for Syria to slide back into conflict.

There is mutual suspicion between the new authorities and religious minorities such as the Alawwites and De Druze.

It is a flammable mixture that only occurs further because of the role that foreign countries continue to play such as Israel and Turkey. Both have demanded their interests in Syria since the fall of Assad.

Israel has seized more land in southern Syria beyond the area of ​​the Golan heights that it has long occupied.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for the full demilitarization of Suweida and two other provinces south of Damascus. He says that the new Syrian government is extremist and that the presence of its security forces everywhere near the border would pose a threat to Israel.

Israel has played his connection with the Druze community in the region and presented himself as their defender, even if many Syrian Druzen do not see it that way.

The new authorities in Damascus have rejected Israel’s movements as an infringement of the sovereignty of Syria, although they want to make it clear that they are not looking for a conflict with Israel.

Turkey was the most important sponsor of the rebels that finally drove Assad and has narrow ties with the new leadership of the country. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denounced the latest military intervention from Israel in Syria as a “dangerous and unacceptable provocation”.

The tension between Turkey and Israel about their different goals in the new Syria adds another complication to the series of problems that Sharaa and his government are confronted.

With so many forces, both inside and outside Syria, still dangerously at odds, the goal to unite and stabilize the country – despite some successes so far – enormously challenging.

Syria needs a lot of breathing space, as well as financial and political support from the international community to make real progress in the direction of a better future for its citizens, impoverished and uprooted by years of bitter conflict.