The Albany Gazette - Israel strikes near Damascus presidential palace over Druze violence

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.

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.

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(P.Davis--TAG)