Israel says it carried out operation against gunmen attacking Druze fighters in Syria

SAHNAYA, Syria (AP) — Israel said Wednesday that it carried out an attack in Syria on a group targeting members of a minority sect as a new round of clashes left at least 11 people dead, most of them members of the country's security forces.

The clashes on the edge of the town of Sahnaya, south of the capital Damascus, came a day after a heavy exchange of fire between pro-government gunmen and Druze fighters left 10 people dead in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana.

A statement released by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel's military carried out a warning operation and attacked “an extremist group that was organizing to continue attacking the Druze population” in Sahnaya. It didn't give details about the warning operation.

The statement said “a serious message was also conveyed to the Syrian regime,” adding that Israel expects it to act to prevent harm to the Druze.

The Syrian Information Ministry said in a statement that 11 members of the country’s security forces were killed in two separate attacks and that others were wounded, triggering the clashes.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said that 22 people were killed, of whom 16 were members of the security forces while two were Druze residents of Sahnaya. It added that government forces are sending reinforcements toward Sahnaya.

The Israeli military said Wednesday night that three Syrian Druze who were wounded in the fighting were taken to Israel for treatment.

On March 1, Israel's Defense Ministry said that the military had been instructed to prepare to defend Jaramana, asserting that the minority it has vowed to protect was "under attack" by Syrian forces.

On Wednesday afternoon, a deal was reached between Druze dignitaries and officials representing the government after which security forces and pro-government gunmen entered Sahnaya and the situation became quite after Druze gunmen withdrew from the streets.

The Druze religious sect is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.

Rayan Maarouf, editor-in-chief of the activist media collective Suwayda24, said that the clashes broke out Tuesday night when security forces began attacking Ashrafiet Sahnaya. Maarouf, who is a Druze, said that since Tuesday night, residents have been contacting them to say that residential areas were being targeted.

The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Geir O. Pedersen said in a statement that he is deeply concerned “at unacceptable violence in Syria,” adding that he is alarmed at reports of civilian casualties and also casualties among security personnel and the potential for further escalation of an extremely fragile situation.

“He is also alarmed at reports of Israeli attacks. These attacks must stop,” Pedersen's statement said.

Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party, the largest Druze political group in the country, said former leader Walid Joumblatt contacted the political leadership in Damascus as well as officials in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, adding that an agreement had been reached on a ceasefire that went into effect.

Since the downfall of President Bashar Assad in December, Israel has pushed its forces into southern Syria to create a demilitarized buffer zone.

“Israel will not allow harm to the Druze community in Syria out of a deep commitment to our Druze brothers in Israel, who are connected by family and historical ties to their Druze brothers in Syria,” the statement released by Netanyahu said.

___

Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Beirut.