Death Toll Rises Sharply in a Wave of Sectarian Violence in Syria

The death toll from this week’s outbreak of sectarian violence in Syria has surpassed 100, a war monitoring group said on Thursday, after clashes between pro-government forces and militants from Syria’s Druse minority spread to new areas.

But by Thursday night, government representatives had struck accords with Druse leaders in a bid to calm the violence. The move also appeared to be a step toward achieving the new government’s goal of integrating the complex web of armed groups operating across the country into a national military. Leaders in the Druse-controlled Sweida region, previously reluctant to unite with government forces, expressed openness to doing so.

The unrest began on Tuesday after an audio clip circulated on social media purporting to be of a Druse cleric insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The cleric denied the accusation, and Syria’s Interior Ministry said he was not involved.

Nevertheless, armed Sunni Muslim extremist groups began attacking areas with large Druse populations, including the town of Jaramana near the capital, Damascus. Druse militias responded in force and the government sent forces to quell the unrest.

On Wednesday, the clashes spread to another town on the southern outskirts of Damascus, Ashrafieh Sahnaya, and into Sweida, where they continued until Thursday morning.

Five prominent Druse leaders released a statement Thursday night saying that Interior Ministry personnel and judicial police “drawn from the people” of Sweida “must be activated,” indicating a willingness to join forces with the government.

They also said government forces were deploying to secure the road from Sweida to the capital, where clashes occurred on Wednesday. The government also agreed to send reinforcements to protect Jaramana, Druse leaders there said.

Jibran, a doctor who treated some of the wounded in Sweida, said a delegation of Druse leaders from Sweida were ambushed on their way to Ashrafieh Sahnaya on Wednesday morning by Bedouin tribal fighters with mortars and machine guns.

Though government security forces later arrived to restore order, Bedouin tribes that night began shelling a Druse militia checkpoint in the town of Kanaker, southwest of Sweida, instigating another battle overnight, said Jibran, who asked to be identified only by his first name because of the remaining threat of violence. He said about 70 people had gone missing or been killed.

In a country where minorities already felt deeply vulnerable, this week’s major outbreak of sectarian violence — the second since a rebel coalition toppled President Bashar al-Assad and seized power — exposed Syria’s fractures even further.

That coalition was led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which was once linked to Al Qaeda, and included other Islamist armed groups with more extreme ideologies. Many of those groups have not dissolved into the new national military, and Syria’s new authorities have shown little capacity to rein them in.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the death toll from three days of clashes rose to 101 by Thursday.

The Observatory reported for the first time on Thursday that 35 Druse had been killed on the road connecting Sweida to Damascus, and five Druse fighters in a village in Sweida.

Those killed in Ashrafieh Sahnaya on Wednesday included a former mayor from the area, Hassan Warwar, and his son, the Observatory said.

The Observatory said 20 from the government’s security forces were also killed in this week’s unrest, and 10 from allied groups.

The Druse practice a religion that is an offshoot of Islam. Israel, which has a close relationship with Israeli Druse, also entered the fray on Wednesday, launching airstrikes against what it characterized as “operatives” who had attacked Syrian Druse civilians.

Abu Hassan, a Druse militia commander in Sweida who goes by a nom de guerre, said thousands of fighters had battled in several places on Wednesday between Sweida and Daraa, another southwestern city. He said Druse militants were fighting Bedouin militants allied with the government, among others.

The governor of the area that includes Jaramana and Ashrafieh Sahnaya, Amr al-Sheikh, blamed “outlawed groups” for starting the initial violence in a news conference on Wednesday, but did not identify the groups. Mr. al-Sheikh did not acknowledge the presence of pro-government armed factions, saying only that official government forces had deployed to protect the two towns.

Other security officials, however, have privately acknowledged that the government is unable to control all armed groups that support it.

“We have the right to keep our weapons to protect ourselves from these random factions,” said Loubna Baset, a Druse activist in Sweida.

The government “is claiming that they are sending all these military reinforcements to protect us, but we don’t trust them,” she added.

Despite the sectarian battle lines, the government’s general security forces include Druse and other minorities as well as fighters from the country’s Sunni Muslim majority. Druse were among the general security forces killed this week.

But despite promises of inclusivity from the government, Syrian minorities remain on edge, an anxiety that deepened after a March wave of sectarian killings hit Syria’s coastal region, home of the country’s Alawites, the minority group that the Assad family belongs to.