Four Druze fighters killed in clash with Syrian forces

A Syrian war monitor yesterday said at least four Druze fighters were killed in clashes with security forces loyal to the Islamist government who stormed a Damascus suburb.

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The incident follows a wave of sectarian bloodshed last month, the worst since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime president Bashar al-Assad in December, with massacres taking place largely in the Alawite coastal heartland over several days.

“Heavy clashes erupted in Jaramana after security forces and affiliated gunmen stormed” areas of the mostly Druze and Christian suburb, after “the circulation of an audio recording, attributed to a Druze citizen, containing religious insults”, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.