Latest news with #al-AqlHikmatal-Hijri
Shafaq News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
No safety from HTS: Druze plea for UN shield
Shafaq News/ On Friday, the Military Council in Syria's southern al-Suwayda province declared its full support for Druze spiritual leader Sheikh al-Aql Hikmat al-Hijri's appeal for urgent international protection. In a statement posted on Facebook, the council emphasized al-Hijri's role in 'safeguarding the people of Jabal al-Arab.' The council accused Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly known as al-Nusra Front, of committing war crimes in Druze-populated areas including Sahnaya and Jaramana near Damascus, citing random killings of unarmed civilians, arbitrary arrests, and the humiliation of Druze religious figures and symbols. It further accused HTS of undermining social cohesion through extremist ideology and the use of force, with the Druze identity as a particular target. Calling for immediate action, the council urged the UN Security Council to establish a safe zone in al-Suwayda and its surroundings under neutral international supervision, and called on the UN Human Rights Council to deploy investigation teams and pursue international accountability for those responsible. The council warned foreign backers of HTS against funding what it called 'terrorist groups carrying out sectarian cleansing in violation of international law,' and condemned what it described as international silence over the violence in the affected areas. Earlier, al-Hijri, called for 'rapid and direct international assistance' in a separate statement, saying that 'a government does not kill its people.'
Shafaq News
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Syria's Damascus Countryside: Druze leader condemns ‘Extermination'
Shafaq News/ On Thursday, Druze spiritual leader Sheikh al-Aql Hikmat al-Hijri issued a stark warning about what he described as 'systematic mass killings' targeting civilians in Syria's coastal and Druze-majority regions. 'We did not expect the Takfiri Daesh-style massacres; they came solely for killing and terror,' al-Hijri stated. 'What is happening requires immediate intervention by international forces to maintain peace and to stop these crimes at once.' He accused extremist factions and their backers of targeting minorities, including moderate Sunnis, denouncing the state's 'failure' to protect its citizens. 'We no longer trust an entity that claims to be a government — for a true government does not kill its own people through its affiliated Takfiri gangs.' Calling for a decentralized and inclusive civil state, al-Hijri urged Syrians to adopt a constitution that ensures equality and rejects sectarian exclusion, stressing, 'Our people and our martyrs are not gangs. This is an unjustifiable campaign of extermination.'
