CAIRO: Israel’s military said on Saturday its forces deployed in southern Syria were ready to protect the Druze minority, following recent sectarian clashes.
The Israeli army “is deployed in southern Syria and is prepared to prevent the entry of hostile forces into the area of Druze villages,” the military said in a statement, without specifying whether this was a new deployment or elaborating on the number of troops on the ground.
A Druze official in Sweida province, the heartland of Syria’s Druze community, said there had been “no deployment of Israeli soldiers there.”
Israel’s troop presence is “reportedly confined to Quneitra province” near the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, where the army had “established positions” following the ousting of longtime president Bashar Assad in December, the official added.
After deadly sectarian clashes near Damascus earlier this week, Israel has conducted multiple strikes it says were meant to protect the Druze community and warned Syria’s Islamist rulers against harming the minority group.
On Saturday the Israeli military said that “five Syrian Druze citizens were evacuated to receive medical treatment in Israel overnight” after sustaining injuries on Syrian territory.
The Druze official in Sweida said they had been wounded “in clashes in Sahnaya,” the site of recent sectarian violence near Damascus.
They were “afraid of being sent to hospitals in Damascus, out of fear of being detained,” the official added.
According to army statements, a total of 15 Syrian Druze have been admitted to hospital in Israel since the beginning of the week.
Israel launched more than 20 air strikes inside Syria late Friday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, following an attack near the presidential palace in Damascus, which the authorities condemned as a “dangerous escalation.”
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Thursday that Israel will respond forcefully if Syria’s new government fails to protect the Druze minority.
The Israeli strikes came after Druze clerics and armed factions reaffirmed their loyalty to Damascus, following clashes also involving government-affiliated groups.
The Observatory monitor said more than 100 people were killed in the clashes in Sahnaya and Jaramana, both near Damascus, and in Sweida province.
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Israel military says deployed in southern Syria in support of Druze
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Israel military says deployed in southern Syria in support of Druze
- Israel's military said on Saturday its forces deployed in southern Syria were ready to protect the Druze minority, following recent sectarian clashes.
Germany charges suspected former Syrian intelligence agent with dozens of murders
- Accused, identified as Fahad A, is suspected of interrogating, torturing and killing inmates in Damascus prison under Bashar Assad
German prosecutors have charged a suspected former member of Syrian intelligence with crimes against humanity and the torture and murder of dozens of prisoners held in a Damascus prison under Bashar Assad, a statement said on Monday.
The accused, who was arrested in May and identified only as Fahad A. under German privacy rules, was suspected of working as a guard in a prison in the Syrian capital between the end of April 2011 and mid-April 2012, it said.
“There, he participated in well over 100 interrogations during which prisoners were subjected to severe physical abuse, such as electric shocks or beatings with cables,” it said.
“On the orders of his superiors, the accused also abused inmates at night, for example by hanging them from the ceiling, dousing them with cold water, or forcing them to remain in uncomfortable positions. As a result of such mistreatment and the catastrophic prison conditions, at least 70 prisoners died.”
German prosecutors have used universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to seek trials for suspects in crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.
Based on these laws, several people suspected of war crimes during the Syrian conflict have been arrested in the last few years in Germany, which is home to around one million Syrians.
The accused, who was arrested in May and identified only as Fahad A. under German privacy rules, was suspected of working as a guard in a prison in the Syrian capital between the end of April 2011 and mid-April 2012, it said.
“There, he participated in well over 100 interrogations during which prisoners were subjected to severe physical abuse, such as electric shocks or beatings with cables,” it said.
“On the orders of his superiors, the accused also abused inmates at night, for example by hanging them from the ceiling, dousing them with cold water, or forcing them to remain in uncomfortable positions. As a result of such mistreatment and the catastrophic prison conditions, at least 70 prisoners died.”
German prosecutors have used universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to seek trials for suspects in crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.
Based on these laws, several people suspected of war crimes during the Syrian conflict have been arrested in the last few years in Germany, which is home to around one million Syrians.
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