Israel strikes Damascus, Syria, vowing to defend Druze : NPR
In this photo published by the official Syrian official news agency Sana, Smoke rises from an Israeli air strike which struck the Syrian Ministry of Defense on Wednesday in Damascus, in Syria.
SANA / AP
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SANA / AP
Like Aviv, Israel – the Israeli army launched the Syrian capital of Damascus on Wednesday, claiming that it was aimed at the country’s military command.
The strikes damaged the headquarters of the Syrian Defense Ministry. The Israeli army said it also reached a military target near the Syrian presidential palace.
The Syrian Ministry of Syrian said that three people had been killed and 34 injured in Israeli Damascus strikes.
Israel said that he was intervening to defend the Druze minority sect in southwest Syria, the community of which rides the border with the heights of Golan occupied by Israeli. Syrian government forces had joined the Bedouin militias in clashes with armed groups in Druze in the southern Sweida Syrian city.
Shortly after Damascus strikes, the leaders of the Interior Interior and Druze Ministry announced a renewed ceasefire agreement.
A man walks in front of the Syrian military seat strongly damaged in Damascus, after Israeli strikes on Wednesday.
Louai Beshara / AFP via Getty Images
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Louai Beshara / AFP via Getty Images
The Syrian Ministry of Defense had blamed Druze militias in Sweida for breaking a previous ceasefire that had been reached on Tuesday, saying that it caused the Syrian government to fire. The office of the Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa has published a statement assuring Sweida residents that their “rights will always be protected and that we will not allow any part to falsify their safety or stability”.
Earlier Wednesday, Syria Barrack’s special American envoy said that the administration had condemned violence to Sweida and called on all parties to defuse and negotiate a cease-fire.
Since the Islamist militias forced Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power last year, the new leaders of the country had trouble consolidating control. Even if Sharaa has repeatedly called for calm, sectarian attacks on the revenge of mainly Sunni Muslim groups against the country’s minorities were widespread. Hundreds of civilians from the Allawite religious minority – the same sect as the Assad family – were killed.
Sweida’s clashes followed kidnappings and attacks between the local Sunni Bedouin tribes and the armed factions of Druze, which quickly saved in general clashes through the villages and cities of the region, which saw the peeled districts and the houses burned. The Syrian government forces which intervened to try to restore calm and then clashed with the Druze. In the midst of communications power of communications in the region, many Druze outside Sweida panicked the fate of their families.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an instructor of conflict and rights based in the United Kingdom, said that 260 people had been killed in the region on Wednesday morning, including four children, five women and 138 soldiers and security forces.
During the fighting, Israel launched air strikes aimed at government troops and convoys. In Israel, men from the Druze community are enlisted in the army, some occupying ranks raised in the Israeli army.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday evening in a statement that Israel had “a commitment to preserve the southwest region of Syria as a demilitarized area on the Israeli border” and has “an obligation to protect the premises of Druze”.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, said in a statement on Wednesday that the UN chief “condemns Israel’s climbing air strikes on Suweida, Daraa and in the center of Damascus” as well as reports on the redeployment of the Israeli army of the Golanes forces.
In the aftermath of the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, Israel has repeatedly reached military targets in Syria, destroying the main military infrastructure. Israel said he did not want Islamist militias close to his borders.
This is a story in development, which can be updated.
