‘Immediate strike': Netanyahu orders IDF to hit Syrian forces in Sweida; cites threat to Druze community
Israel's armed forces announced they were conducting strikes against military vehicles of Syrian government forces in Sweida, southern Syria, following reports from Syrian state media about a fresh attack on the predominantly Druze city.
"A short while ago, the (Israeli army) began striking military vehicles belonging to Syrian regime forces in the area of Sweida in southern Syria, " a military statement said, quoted by AFP, shortly after Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
and Defence Minister Israel Katz said they had ordered the army to "immediately strike regime forces and weaponry that were brought into the Sweida region in the the Druze mountains in Syria in order to carry out operations against the Druze."
Israel has adopted an aggressive stance towards Syria's new leaders following the ousting of former President Bashar Assad during a rapid rebel offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgent groups in December last year, stating it did not want militants near its borders. Israeli forces seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria.
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Earlier Tuesday, religious leaders of the Druze community in Syria called for armed factions clashing with govt forces to surrender their weapons and cooperate with authorities as they entered the provincial capital of Sweida. One of the main religious authorities later released a video statement retracting the call.
The initial statement urged armed factions in Sweida to 'cooperate with the forces of the Ministry of Interior, not to resist their entry, and to hand over their weapons to the Ministry of Interior.'
It also called for 'opening a dialogue with the Syrian govt to address the repercussions of the events.'
Brigadier General Ahmad al-Dalati, commander of Internal Security in Sweida Governorate, welcomed the statement and called for 'all religious authorities and social activists to adopt a unified national stance that supports the Ministry of Interior's measures to extend state authority and achieve security throughout the province.'
Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, a Druze spiritual leader opposed to the govt in Damascus, stated in a video message that the previous statement by Druze leaders had been issued after an agreement with the authorities in Damascus but 'they broke the promise and continued the indiscriminate shelling of unarmed civilians.'
'We are being subjected to a total war of annihilation,' he said.
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