Israeli army strikes close to Syria's presidential palace after warning over sectarian assaults

[ad_1] DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Israel’s air power struck close to Syria’s presidential palace early Friday after warning Syrian authorities to not march towards villages inhabited by members of a minority sect in southern Syria.

The strike got here after days of clashes between pro-Syrian authorities gunmen and fighters who belong to the Druze minority sect close to the capital, Damascus. The clashes left dozens of individuals useless or wounded.

Friday’s strike was Israel’s second on Syria this week , and attacking an space near the presidential palace seems to ship a robust warning to Syria’s new management that's largely made up of Islamist teams led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

On Thursday, Syria’s Druze religious chief Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri harshly criticized Syria’s authorities for what he known as an “unjustified genocidal assault” on the minority neighborhood.

Early Friday, the Druze non secular management mentioned the neighborhood is a part of Syria and refuses to interrupt away from the nation, including that the function of the state ought to be activated within the southern province of Sweida and authorities ought to be answerable for the Sweida-Damascus freeway.

“We affirm our dedication to a rustic that features all Syrians, a nation that is freed from strife,” the assertion mentioned.

Within the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, the place combating occurred earlier this week, safety forces deployed inside the realm together with native Druze gunmen, and at a later stage heavy weapons will probably be handed over to authorities. As a part of the deal, forces from the protection ministry will deploy round Jaramana with out going inside.

Israeli fighter jets strike close to the palace The Israeli military mentioned that fighter jets struck adjoining to the realm of the Palace of President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Damascus. Its assertion gave no additional particulars.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Protection Minister Israel Katz mentioned the strike was a message to Syrian leaders. “It is a clear message to the Syrian regime. We is not going to permit the deployment of forces south of Damascus or any risk to the Druze neighborhood,” mentioned the joint assertion.

Professional-government Syrian media retailers mentioned the strike hit near the Individuals’s Palace on a hill overlooking town.

Over the previous two days the Israeli army mentioned it had evacuated Syrian Druze who have been wounded within the combating.

The Israeli military mentioned in a press release Friday {that a} soldier was killed and three have been frivolously injured in an accident within the Golan Heights. A military assertion added that the troopers have been evacuated to obtain medical therapy on the hospital and that the circumstances of the incident are being investigated.

Clashes set off by disputed audio clip The clashes broke out round midnight Monday after an audio clip circulated on social media of a person criticizing Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. The audio was attributed to a Druze cleric. However cleric Marwan Kiwan mentioned in a video posted on social media that he was not accountable for the audio, which angered many Sunni Muslims.

Syria’s Data Ministry mentioned 11 members of the nation’s safety forces have been killed in two separate assaults, whereas Britain-based struggle monitor The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights mentioned 56 individuals in Sahnaya and the Druze-majority Damascus suburb of Jaramana have been killed in clashes, amongst them native gunmen and safety forces.

The Druze religious sect is a minority group that started as a Tenth-century offshoot of Ismailism, a department of Shiite Islam. Greater than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide reside in Syria, largely within the southern Sweida province and a few suburbs of Damascus.

Many of the different Druze reside in Lebanon and Israel, together with within the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria within the 1967 Mideast Struggle and annexed in 1981.

____ Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Beirut.

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