This is Beirut, 03/05 15:37 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
United Nations special envoy Geir Pedersen on Saturday urged Israel to immediately stop its attacks on Syria, after strikes including one near Damascus's presidential palace, which followed sectarian violence this week. Fresh overnight strikes were reported, coming as Israel has repeatedly said its forces were ready to protect the Druze ...
This is Beirut, 02/05 22:50 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Damascus Benjamin Netanyahu Israel
Syria's Islamist rulers on Friday denounced an air strike near the presidential palace as a "dangerous escalation", as Israel called it a "clear message" not to harm the Druze minority. The dawn strike came hours after senior Druze clerics and armed factions reaffirmed their loyalty to Damascus and rejected any call for secession. They also ...
This is Beirut, 02/05 21:10 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
Damascus Israel United Kingdom
Four Druze fighters were killed on Friday in a drone strike targeting Syria’s southern province of Sweida, a stronghold of the Druze minority, according to a rights group, which did not specify who carried out the attack. “Four Druze fighters were killed on a farm in Kanaker in an explosion that coincided with the overflight of a drone,” ...
This is Beirut, 02/05 19:40 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Deadly sectarian violence in Syria this week between security forces and Druze fighters follows massacres of Alawites in March, with government forces and affiliated gunmen involved in both outbreaks. Many questions have been raised on the identity of fighters in the country's new security forces, and the interim government's ability to control ...
This is Beirut, 01/05 21:20 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Thursday that Israel will respond forcefully if Syria's Islamist-led government fails to protect the Druze minority, after two days of deadly sectarian clashes near Damascus. "Should the attacks on the Druze resume and the Syrian regime fail to prevent them, Israel will respond with significant force," Katz ...
This is Beirut, 30/04 19:20 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
United Nations Benjamin Netanyahu Damascus Israel
The United Nations special envoy for Syria on Wednesday condemned the "unacceptable" violence rocking the country after deadly sectarian clashes and called for an immediate halt to Israeli air strikes. The envoy, Geir Pedersen, was "alarmed" at "the potential for further escalation of an extremely fragile situation" after violent clashes around ...
This is Beirut, 30/04 19:00 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Israel Benjamin Netanyahu Damascus Druze
Israel has confirmed a strike in southern Syria targeting what it described as an "extremist group" preparing to attack members of the Druze minority in the town of Sahnaya, near Damascus. According to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, the operation served as a warning and was aimed at preventing further ...
This is Beirut, 30/04 18:35 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Damascus Druze community ISLAM Sami Abil-Mona Druze Religious Council
Sheikh Sami Abi Al-Muna, the Sheikh Akl (spiritual leader) of the Druze community in Lebanon, strongly condemned recent violence in the Syrian town of Jaramana, describing it as “a deliberate attempt to provoke sectarian strife,” triggered by an incendiary audio recording deemed insulting to the Prophet Muhammad. In a statement issued ...
This is Beirut, 30/04 17:50 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Damascus Israel Benjamin Netanyahu
Syria's small Druze community largely kept out of the country's long civil war, but since President Bashar al-Assad's ouster in December, it has found itself confronting the new Islamist-led government amid military intervention by Israel. Here is a profile of the religious minority that has been caught up in deadly clashes with armed ...
This is Beirut, 30/04 15:45 - Reading : 4 minute(s)
Sectarian clashes between forces linked to Syria's new authorities and Druze fighters spread overnight near Damascus, leaving 16 people dead, state media and a monitor said Wednesday. The expanding violence is a major challenge to the Islamist authorities who overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December and comes after sectarian massacres ...
This is Beirut, 30/04 15:45 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Damascus Israel Druze Walid Joumblatt Syria Islamists
A ceasefire between gunmen linked to Syrian authorities and Druze fighters was reportedly reached on Wednesday, following intensive mediation by former Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) leader Walid Joumblatt. The effort involved contacts with the new Syrian administration, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan, according to al-Markazia news ...
This is Beirut, 29/04 16:05 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Damascus Syria Druze Islamists HTS fighting
Sectarian tensions between the Sunni and Druze communities are alarmingly resurging in Syria. From Homs to the outskirts of Damascus, to Sweida, a Druze heartland south of Syria, several violent incidents have reignited sectarian divisions in a country still deeply scarred by more than a decade of war. Clashes in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana ...