More than 30 killed as Syrian government struggles to contain sectarian violence
Syria
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The authorities have released Bedouin tribesmen and Druze fighters who clashed earlier, killing 37 and wounding 100 in the Druze-majority province of Sweida, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Detaining combatants could have risked attacks by Druze and Bedouin militias on HTS security forces, which are untrained, undermanned and overstretched.
The violence was sparked by the abduction of a Druze merchant on the road to Damascus during the wave of kidnappings washing over the country.
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The influential Druze Rejal al-Karamah (Men of Dignity) movement blamed the government for the lack of security in the province and warned that unrest 'threatens civil peace and paves the way for chaos.'
The interior ministry admitted this escalation was due to the 'absence of relevant official institutions, leading to worsening chaos, a collapse of the security situation, and the local community's inability to contain the crisis despite repeated calls for calm'.
While consolidating its grip on power, the interim government has excluded allied factions and opposition groups and has failed to put all fighters under interior ministry control.
The HTS monopoly has led to unrest in areas still held by former partners. Sidelined Syrian political figures accuse the interim government of failing to deliver on its promise of creating an inclusive administration.
Monday's outbreak was the first serious violence involving Druze since April and May when 130 were killed and scores wounded in fighting near Damascus after attacks by Sunni militiamen bolstered by government forces.
The Sweida incidents coincided with wildfires set and claimed by Sunni extremist Ansar al-Sunna in forests in the coastal Latakia region in a fresh bid to drive minority Alawites from their stronghold.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said at least 1,400 Alawites were killed by Sunni militiamen and government forces during massacres in Latakia in March and April.
On June 22nd, Ansar al-Sunna took responsibility for a suicide bombing which killed 25 and injured 63 at the Greek Orthodox Mar Elias church in Damascus. This was the first major attack on the Christian community since 1860 during violence between Maronite Catholic Christians and Druze.
With Ankara's support, HTS asserted control over Syria's northwestern Idlib province in 2017 and established an opposition 'salvation' government.
HTS provided security, repaired roads, restored electricity and water, promoted trade with Turkey and ruled with a heavy hand. Last December HTS and allied Sunni fighters swept out of Idlib with the aim of expanding the territory they held.
HTS unexpectedly toppled the secular Assad government. Governing the vast territory of Syria, and its multi-confessional population of 23 million, observers argue, cannot be compared with administering Syria's third smallest province with a population of two million.
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The record player 'lived' in the study area of Compound 19, and there was a hardback book that sat beside it. If you wanted to listen to a record, you'd put your name in the book and the hour you wanted it. Jim introduced the sounds of 'alternative music,' and music that was making a political impact in the UK, 'including, of course, The Raincoats,' William says. Jim recently reminded William of playing him The Raincoats' cover of Lola, but he emphasised that what drew him to The Raincoats initially was the Fairytale EP, 'their first single.' But he loved it all, and he sent the fan letter after receiving the self-titled LP from Rough Trade. Throughout his time in the Maze, he kept in direct contact with Sue Donne, who handled Rough Trade mail order. He gratefully recalls how Sue began sending him 'freebies' and discounting records for Jim to give a listen to. Did the records get censored? All the records would be opened and examined, and some things would be censored. But if there wasn't anything obvious – thank goodness for the subtlety of The Raincoats' political interventions – the records would be delivered to the prisoner who ordered them. But not before they'd been desecrated. William holds up some examples of records that had come into the Maze. There are large black redaction marks where the guards essentially made scribbles to damage the records. The prisoner's number would also be written largely on the front. 'But it actually gives them a kind of authenticity now,' he reflects. Jim would sometimes put on The Raincoats in the evening for everyone– 'And you can just imagine some of the criticism he would have got from the older folk,' William says. But it didn't deter Jim. The music was that important. He was imprisoned for about four years in total. During that time, he brought the world of Rough Trade to the prison, and he opened the sonic and political minds of many young prisoners in the larger compound with him. Jim loved music so much, and learned so much about it from the records he ordered and shared with fellow prisoners in the H-Blocks, that he opened a record shop in Smithfield Market in Belfast after he was released from the Maze. The market 'was a hard place,' William explains, with a long and violent history during the Troubles. 'It would get bombed every other month during the conflict,' he says, but after the Good Friday Agreement, it became a space of peace. And, thanks to Jim, of music. William used to visit the shop regularly until it closed, and he bought a fair amount of his current record collection from Jim. What was the shop called? 'Jim's Records.' That piece of fan mail, housed carefully in The Raincoats' archive for nearly 50 years, is a reminder of the stark power, and often unpredictable political resonances, that music can have. Had many tried to guess the identity of a Raincoats fan imprisoned in Long Kesh in 1979, they'd likely have made the assumption the writer had been a member of the IRA, whose politics seemed to align most closely to their own. Yet the truth is much more complex, and it reveals both the strengths and limitations of political ideology – and the assumptions we make – in moments of great unrest. Shouting Out Loud Shouting Out Loud: Lives of The Raincoats is published by White Rabbit
