Latest news with #Hikmatal-Hijri
L'Orient-Le Jour
05-05-2025
- Politics
- L'Orient-Le Jour
In Sweida, Druze Sheikh al-Hijri continues to impose a hard line against Damascus
He was already Syria's most influential Druze spiritual figure. His name is now associated with any discussion on relations between the Druze community and the central government in Damascus. Hikmat al-Hijri, 59, reaffirmed his political weight during recent clashes between Druze factions and government forces, which resulted in more than 100 deaths in Sweida and the Damascus suburbs of Jaramana and Sahnaya in one week. On May 1, the sheikh temporarily distanced himself from negotiations between the government and a delegation of Druze representatives aimed at finding an agreement to end the violence and secure Sweida province, a stronghold of the Druze minority, which constitutes 3 percent of Syria's population. A signal that the talks were not going in the direction he the situation reversed on May 3. Hijri, on one...
United News of India
03-05-2025
- Politics
- United News of India
Israel terms Damascus airstrikes a warning to Syria to not harm its Druze community
Tel Aviv/Damascus, May 3 (UNI) The Israeli Defence Forces said that its latest strikes in Damascus were a warning to Syria's new Islamic rulers to not harm its Druze minority, who have been targets of increased state oppression since the ouster of President Bashar Al Assad's regime. The airstrikes, which were carried out less than a day after the attack on the presidential palace in Damascus, was followed by a targeted strike against enemy infrastructure. The IDF in a statement said that on late Friday night, it 'targeted a military site, anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missile infrastructure,' as the Kan public broadcaster reported that Israel was readying a list of military and government targets to potentially attack in Syria, the Israel Times reported. The military's statement came two hours after Syria's state news agency SANA reported Israeli airstrikes near Damascus and in the west, at Latakia and Hama, as well as in Daraa in the south. SANA said one civilian was killed at Harasta near Damascus, and four people were wounded near Hama. The airstrikes saw a series of some of IDF's deadliest attacks in Syria this year, as it targeted more than 20 positions in at least six provinces, according to the UK-based-watchdog - the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and state media. The raids reportedly struck a wide range of locations, including Mount Qasioun, Barzeh, and Harasta in Rural Damascus, with explosions rocking areas near the Harasta Military Hospital. The IDF attack came after Druze clerics and armed factions reaffirmed their loyalty to Damascus, following clashes between Druze fighters and Syrian forces, including government-affiliated groups, in the Damascus suburbs of Jaramana and in Sweida province in southern Syria. The group said that more than 100 people were killed in the fighting, which took place in areas with large Druze populations. Syrian Druze leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri had urged the international community to intervene and protect his people from the 'genocidal campaign' being carried out by Syria's government. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar also urged the international community to protect Syria's Druze against 'the regime and its terrorist gangs". Israel is home to over 150,000 Druze people, who took to the streets and demanded that Jerusalem do something to prevent the harassment of its brethren in Syria. Reaffirming his support to the community, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Nethanyahu called the attack a 'message to the Syrian regime' that Israel would not tolerate the presence of Syrian armed forces south of Damascus, 'or any threat to the Druze community". The SOHR said that Israel has now conducted 52 strikes on Syria since the start of this year, including 44 airstrikes and eight ground assaults, destroying at least 79 targets ranging from weapons depots and command centres to military vehicles and missile platforms.
Nahar Net
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Nahar Net
Israel strikes near Syria presidential palace over attacks on Druze
by Naharnet Newsdesk 02 May 2025, 12:35 Israel's military said Friday it launched air strikes near the presidential palace in Damascus after the Israeli defense minister threatened intervention if Syrian authorities failed to protect the Druze minority. Syria's Druze spiritual leader has condemned a "genocidal campaign" against his community after sectarian clashes killed 102 people. The violence poses a serious challenge to the Islamist authorities in Syria who ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December. Israel has since then attacked hundreds of Syrian military sites and on Friday announced its "fighter jets struck adjacent to the area of the palace" in the capital Damascus, a military statement said. Syrian Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri had denounced the sectarian violence near Damascus as an "unjustifiable genocidal campaign". He called in a statement Thursday for immediate intervention by "international forces to maintain peace and prevent the continuation of these crimes". The Druze killings come after a wave of massacres in March in Syria's Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast in which security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly from Assad's Alawite community, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani on Thursday called for "national unity" as "the solid foundation for any process of stability or revival". "Any call for external intervention, under any pretext or slogan, only leads to further deterioration and division," he wrote on X. Israel sees the new forces in Syria as jihadists and has warned them to protect the Druze minority, with Defense Minister Israel Katz saying his country could otherwise respond "with significant force". Israel carried out strikes near Damascus on Wednesday and has also sent troops into the demilitarized buffer zone that used to separate Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights. Two wounded Syrian Druze have been evacuated to northern Israel for treatment, according to the Israeli military. - 'Reprehensible' violence - At a meeting of Druze leaders, elders and armed groups in the city of Sweida, the community agreed it was "an inseparable part of the unified Syrian homeland", a spokesperson said. "We reject partition, separation or disengagement," the spokesperson added. The Syrian Observatory said the fighting this week had involved security forces, allied fighters and local Druze groups. The Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, said the 102 death toll included 30 government loyalists, 21 Druze fighters and 10 civilians, including Sahnaya's former mayor, Husam Warwar. In the southern Druze heartland province of Sweida, it said 40 Druze gunmen were killed, 35 in an "ambush" on the Sweida-Damascus road on Wednesday. The monitor told AFP the fighters were killed "by forces affiliated with the ministries of interior and defense and gunmen associated with them". The violence was sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous. AFP was unable to confirm the recording's authenticity. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Thursday the violence and rhetoric against the Druze community in Syria was "reprehensible and unacceptable", and called on the interim authorities to hold perpetrators accountable. Truces were reached Tuesday in Jaramana and a day later in Sahnaya, both areas near Damascus. The Syrian government announced it was deploying forces in Sahnaya to ensure security, and accused "outlaw groups" of instigating the clashes. However, Hijri said he no longer trusts "an entity pretending to be a government... because the government does not kill its people through its extremist militias... and then claim they were unruly elements after the massacres". "The government (should) protect its people," he said. The Druze gathering on Thursday urged the government to engage "the judicial police in Sweida, drawing from the province's own residents" on the issue. Syria's new authorities, who have roots in the al-Qaida jihadist network, have vowed inclusive rule in the multi-confessional, multi-ethnic country, but must also contend with pressures from radical Islamists. On Wednesday a foreign ministry statement vowed to "protect all components" of Syrian society, including the Druze.
BBC News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Israel says it struck near Syria palace over violence in Druze areas
Israel says its fighter jets bombed an area next to the presidential palace in Syria's capital, Damascus, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to protect the Druze religious minority following days of deadly sectarian said the strike was "clear message to the Syrian regime" that Israel would "not allow the deployment of forces south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community".There was no immediate response from the Syrian it rejected "foreign intervention" when Israel carried out strikes south of Damascus on Wednesday during clashes between Druze gunmen, security forces and allied Sunni Islamist fighters. The spiritual leader of Syria's Druze, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, has condemned the violence as an "unjustifiable genocidal campaign" against his community and called for intervention by "international forces to maintain peace".The Syrian government has said it has deployed security forces to Druze areas to combat "outlaw groups" which it has accused of instigating the clashes. Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani has also warned that "any call for external intervention, under any pretext or slogan, only leads to further deterioration and division". According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, at least 102 people have been killed this week in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, a town in the southern outskirts of Damascus, the mainly Druze suburb of Jaramana, and the southern province of Suweida, which has a Druze says that includes 10 Druze civilians and 21 Druze fighters, as well as another 35 Druze fighters who were shot dead in an "ambush" by security forces while travelling from Suweida to Damascus on Wednesday. Thirty members of the General Security service and allied fighters have also been killed, it violence erupted in Jaramana on Monday night after an audio clip of a man insulting the Prophet Muhammad circulated on social media and angered Sunni Muslims. It was attributed to a Druze cleric, but he denied any responsibility. The interior ministry also said a preliminary inquiry had cleared Druze faith is an offshoot of Shia Islam with its own unique identity and beliefs. Half its roughly one million followers live in Syria, where they make up about 3% of the population, while there are smaller communities in Lebanon, Israel and the occupied Golan transitional President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has promised to protect the country's many religious and ethnic minorities since his Sunni Islamist group led the rebel offensive that overthrew Bashar al-Assad's regime in December after 13 years of devastating civil the mass killings of hundreds of civilians from Assad's minority Alawite sect in the western coastal region in March, during clashes between the new security forces and Assad loyalists, hardened fears among minority February, Israel's prime minister warned that he would not "tolerate any threat to the Druze community in southern Syria" from the country's new security also demanded the complete demilitarisation of Suweida and two other southern provinces, saying Israel saw Sharaa's Sunni Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as a threat. HTS is a former al-Qaeda affiliate that is still designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, the US, the EU and the Israeli military has already carried out hundreds of strikes across Syria to destroy the country's military assets over the past four months. It has also sent troops into the UN-monitored demilitarised buffer zone between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, as well as several adjoining areas and the summit of Mount Hermon.
France 24
02-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Israel strikes near Damascus presidential palace following Druze violence
Israel 's military said Friday it launched air strikes near the presidential palace in Damascus after the country's defence minister threatened intervention if Syrian authorities failed to protect the Druze minority. Syria's Druze spiritual leader has condemned a "genocidal campaign" against his community after sectarian clashes killed 102 people. The violence poses a serious challenge to the Islamist authorities in Syria who ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December. Israel has since then attacked hundreds of Syrian military sites and on Friday announced its "fighter jets struck adjacent to the area of the palace" in the capital Damascus, a military statement said. Syrian Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri had denounced the sectarian violence near Damascus as an "unjustifiable genocidal campaign". He called in a statement Thursday for immediate intervention by "international forces to maintain peace and prevent the continuation of these crimes". The Druze killings come after a wave of massacres in March in Syria's Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast in which security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly from Assad's Alawite community, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani on Thursday called for "national unity" as "the solid foundation for any process of stability or revival". "Any call for external intervention, under any pretext or slogan, only leads to further deterioration and division," he wrote on X. Israel sees the new forces in Syria as jihadists and has warned them to protect the Druze minority, with Defence Minister Israel Katz saying his country could otherwise respond "with significant force". Israel carried out strikes near Damascus on Wednesday and has also sent troops into the demilitarised buffer zone that used to separate Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights. Two wounded Syrian Druze have been evacuated to northern Israel for treatment, according to the Israeli military. 'Reprehensible' violence At a meeting of Druze leaders, elders and armed groups in the city of Sweida, the community agreed it was "an inseparable part of the unified Syrian homeland", a spokesperson said. "We reject partition, separation or disengagement," the spokesperson added. The Syrian Observatory said the fighting this week had involved security forces, allied fighters and local Druze groups. The Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, said the 102 death toll included 30 government loyalists, 21 Druze fighters and 10 civilians, including Sahnaya's former mayor, Husam Warwar. In the southern Druze heartland province of Sweida, it said 40 Druze gunmen were killed, 35 in an "ambush" on the Sweida-Damascus road on Wednesday. The monitor told AFP the fighters were killed "by forces affiliated with the ministries of interior and defence and gunmen associated with them". The violence was sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous. AFP was unable to confirm the recording's authenticity. US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Thursday the violence and rhetoric against the Druze community in Syria was "reprehensible and unacceptable", and called on the interim authorities to hold perpetrators accountable. Truces were reached Tuesday in Jaramana and a day later in Sahnaya, both areas near Damascus. The Syrian government announced it was deploying forces in Sahnaya to ensure security, and accused "outlaw groups" of instigating the clashes. However, Hijri said he no longer trusts "an entity pretending to be a government... because the government does not kill its people through its extremist militias... and then claim they were unruly elements after the massacres". "The government (should) protect its people," he said. The Druze gathering on Thursday urged the government to engage "the judicial police in Sweida, drawing from the province's own residents" on the issue. Syria's new authorities, who have roots in the Al-Qaeda jihadist network, have vowed inclusive rule in the multi-confessional, multi-ethnic country, but must also contend with pressures from radical Islamists. On Wednesday a foreign ministry statement vowed to "protect all components" of Syrian society, including the Druze.
