Afrasianet - The situation in Syria seems to have already entered a dark tunnel as a result of ethnic and religious liquidations and the overlapping interests of regional and international parties in a conflict that does not seem to have an end in the foreseeable future.
Tension has escalated in Ashrafieh Sahnaya in Damascus countryside after casualties following renewed armed clashes, amid a state of concern about the expansion of Although the public prosecutor in Damascus sent a letter to the investigating judge in cybercrime and information, accusing citizen Marwan Kiwan of "insulting the Prophet Muhammad", a case that has raised widespread tension in the country. However, the clashes between gunmen belonging to extremist organizations, as described by the Syrian Observatory, move from one place to another, which loses hope for a breakthrough to come. It turns out that the extremists' attack on another town after another indicates that the matter is bigger than anger over insulting the Messenger of God
In this context, the official media published the text of the book, which includes accusing Kiwan of "inciting sectarian strife that threatens the security of the homeland, sedition, and insulting religious rites through the network."
The Attorney General also called on the judge to conduct the necessary investigations based on articles 58 and 59 of the Syrian Code of Criminal Procedure.
Jaramana witnessed armed clashes on Monday night and Tuesday morning, following the circulation of an alleged audio recording of a Druze man insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Local rescue workers reported that the clashes included small and medium-weapons shooting, killing 13 people, including two members of Syria's General Security.
For their part, the sheikhs of the Druze Almohad sect in Syria issued a statement warning against attempts to stir up sedition, stressing their rejection of any insult to the Prophet Muhammad. The statement, signed by sheikhs Hamoud al-Hinnawi and Youssef Jarbou, said: "The position of the sheikhdom of the national and religious mind throughout history has always been on the side of the sons of the same homeland."
The Syrian Ministry of Health reported that the number of victims from the clashes in the town of Ashrafieh Sahnaya in Damascus countryside has risen to 11 people, including members of the General Security, in addition to a number of injuries, despite a meeting held yesterday between the authorities and the sheikhs of the Druze community to contain tension.
A security source in Damascus told SANA that "outlaw groups from the Ashrafieh Sahnaya area attacked a checkpoint belonging to the General Security Department, wounding 3 members with varying injuries."
"In parallel, other groups at the same time deployed among agricultural lands and fired on civilian vehicles and public security management mechanisms on the roads, killing 6 people and wounding others," the source added.
The Interior Ministry stressed that it "will not hesitate with these criminals, and will strike with an iron hand anyone who seeks to destabilize Syria's security and target its people."
On the other hand, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that clashes erupted between gunmen linked to the authority and other members of the Druze community in the area, pointing out that the clashes were concentrated in the residences of Ashrafieh Sahnaya, and spread to the vicinity of the Arab Bank and the entrance to the town, with the targeting of security checkpoints and an intense response from both sides.
The Syrian authorities announced a curfew in the town of Sahnaya until five in the evening, in an attempt to control the explosive security situation. Journalist and civil society activist Rawad Ballan told Al-Mayadeen, "All Syrian regions are apprehensive and afraid of what may happen on the ground."
Tarif warns of Druze massacre in Syria
In a remarkable development, a number of members of the Druze community in the occupied Syrian Golan stormed the border strip separating Syrian territory, expressing their solidarity with the Druze of Ashrafieh Sahnaya following the bloody clashes in the Damascus countryside.
For his part, Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif, the spiritual authority of the Druze community in occupied Palestine, called for "immediate intervention by the Israeli occupation army" to prevent what he described as "an imminent massacre against Druze villages in Syria," in reference to the escalation of tensions and fear of the expansion of sectarian violence.
The developments come a day after clashes in the nearby city of Jaramana between local gunmen and other government auxiliary forces left both sides dead and wounded, bringing tensions back to the forefront and raising fears of escalating sectarian violence.
It is noteworthy that these events came against the backdrop of the spread of an audio recording on social media platforms that includes insults against the Prophet Muhammad, attributed to a Druze cleric, which exacerbated popular anger and added a sensitive religious dimension to the clashes.
Sectarian violence is expanding in Syria. Reuters reports testimonies of the expulsion of Alawites from their homes
Reuters published a report on the sectarian violence suffered by hundreds of Alawites on the Syrian coast in March, which spread to the Syrian capital Damascus, citing testimonies of Syrian citizens who were subjected to sectarian violations.
Sectarian violence extends to Damascus
Reuters quoted Syrian officials, Alawite leaders, human rights groups and 12 people who recounted their testimony that sectarian violence has spread to the capital Damascus, and that security forces have forced hundreds of Alawites from their homes in Damascus since interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Shara took power in Syria.
Bassam al-Ahmad, executive director of the human rights organization Syrians for Truth and Justice, said: "We are certainly not talking about independent incidents. We are talking about hundreds, if not thousands, of evictions," he said, at a time when mass evictions of Alawites from their privately owned homes had never been reported, according to the agency.
Two government officials confirmed that thousands of people have been expelled from their homes in Damascus since Assad's ouster, the majority of them Alawites, most of them in government housing linked to their jobs in state institutions, and since they are no longer working, they have lost their right to stay.
She revealed that hundreds were evicted from their homes simply because they were Alawites, after interviewing a number of officials and victims.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees the ISA, and al-Shara's office did not respond to requests for comment.
She noted that the Alawites fear that the evictions are part of a systematic sectarian score-settling by Syria's new rulers.
It quoted an official in the Damascus countryside directorate, which is responsible for managing public services, who declined to be identified, as saying that they had received hundreds of complaints from people who had been violently displaced.
The mayor of Alawi in a Damascus suburb, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, said in March that 250 of the 2,000 families there had been evicted.
The mayor shared with Reuters a recorded call in March with a person claiming to be a member of the ISA
that the ISA official asked the mayor to find an empty house for a family from the north.
"When the mayor told him there were no apartments for rent, the official told him, 'One of these pigs' houses was emptied, referring to the Alawites," she said.
War Spoils Committee
Three senior ISA officials reported that the new authorities had established two property management committees for individuals believed to be associated with the former regime.
The sources explained that one committee is responsible for the confiscation, while the other handles complaints.
These committees were established when al-Shara's forces approached Damascus in December and were modelled on a similar entity known as the War Spoils Committee in its former stronghold in Idlib, according to ISA sources.
On 16 April, STJ filed a complaint in cooperation with the Damascus Countryside Directorate, calling for an end to property violations motivated by "sectarian" motives and the return of looted property.
Half a million Alawites moved to Damascus
According to Fabrice Balanche, an expert on Syria and associate professor at the University of Lyon, it is estimated that half a million Alawites moved to coastal areas after being driven out of the capital, Homs, Aleppo and other parts of Syria following Assad's fall.
According to Syria expert Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma, the recently established ISA is an extension of the security force that ruled Idlib province.
He added that the ISA now appears to include the police, the FBI, the CIA and the National Guard, all in one.
In the al-Assad neighborhood near Harasta in rural Damascus, Um Hussein, a civil servant and mother of four, said that two armed and masked men came to her private home on January 16 and identified themselves as ISA officers.
Hussein's mother told the agency that the men gave her 24 hours to leave because her son was wheelchair-dependent. She appealed to several government agencies to keep her in her home, and got some reassurances. The next day, at around ten o'clock in the morning, the men returned and gave her two minutes to leave. She said they also confiscated a shop owned by her family in the neighborhood, which she rented.
"Transitional injustice, not transitional justice"
On February 12, the governor of Damascus called on citizens who say their property has been unjustly confiscated to file complaints with the directorates.
Reuters visited one such residence in March. The official, who declined to be named, confirmed a pattern: armed individuals evicting people without a court order, preventing them from taking their belongings, and then breaking into the premises.
The sources said that the majority of the confiscations targeted low- and middle-income Syrians who lost their jobs and lacked the necessary resources to pay the price of getting out of this situation.
Another official in another Damascus district said the expulsions took place overnight without due process.
"The situation is chaotic, but this madness has a special approach, which is to terrorize people and let the whole world know that the Alawites are no longer (in power)," Landis said.
"No transitional justice. There is only transitional injustice."
Katz: We carried out an operation targeting extremists who were about to continue attacking the Druze in Ashrafieh Sahnaya Damascus
But most notably, Israel entered the line, as Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz confirmed that the Israeli army had carried out a warning operation targeting an extremist group that was about to continue attacking the Druze population in the town of Ashrafieh Sahnaya in the countryside of the capital Damascus governorate.
A joint statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz read: "The army carried out a warning operation and attacked an extremist group that was preparing to attack the Druze in Sahnaya in Syria."
The statement added: "We sent a message to the Syrian regime that Israel expects it to act to prevent harm to the Druze."
In a speech at one of the ceremonies, Katz confirmed that the operation was carried out at the direction of Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister, and in coordination with Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir. The aim was to disrupt the extremists' plan to attack the Druze in the town of Ashrafieh Sahnaya, he said.
He pointed out that Israel has sent a clear message to the Syrian regime, holding it responsible for protecting the Druze and preventing them from being harmed.
"Today, we honor the great Druze community's contributions to Israel's security, and we commemorate its martyrs who gave their lives in defense of the state. This increases our commitment to protecting the Druze in Israel and their brothers in Syria."
Katz concluded his statement by stressing that Israel will not tolerate defending the Druze community in Syria, based on the familial and historical ties that unite the Druze in Israel and their counterparts in Syria.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the war would end when Syria had disintegrated, Hezbollah had been dealt a severe blow, Iran had no nuclear threat, and Gaza had been cleansed of Hamas.