At least 13 people were killed in fresh sectarian clashes near Damascus on Wednesday, state media and a Syrian monitoring group said, in a second consecutive day of violence targeting Syria’s Druze religious minority The clashes broke out in Sahnaya and Jaramana, two suburbs of the capital that are largely populated by the Arabic-speaking community, which makes up just 3 percent of the Syrian population.
According to rescue workers and security sources, armed members of the Sunni majority were spurred to violence by a voice recording attributed to a Druze man ostensibly cursing the Prophet Mohammed that was widely shared on social media.
Druze leaders on Tuesday condemned the violence in Jaramana and said the message was “fabricated”.
As the historically multi-faith country rebuilds following the ouster of former authoritarian leader Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s leadership has pledged that minorities will be protected. Government and Druze representatives on Tuesday agreed to hold those responsible for the attack in Jaramana to account.
But increasing violence against Syria’s minority groups has called into question the government’s ability to placate radical Islamists within its coalition and left the Druze community in an increasingly precarious position.
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