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Nusra Front Insurgents Carry Out Deadly Attack on Druse in Syria Syrian Druse Reconsider Alliances After Deadly Attack
(about 9 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Fighters from the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s arm in Syria, have killed at least 20 members of the minority Druse sect in a dispute in northern Syria, fueling fears over how the group treats civilians and minorities as it consolidates power and advances in new areas. BEIRUT, Lebanon — A deadly attack by Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch in the north and an advance by other insurgents into a previously quiet southern province are squeezing Syria’s Druse minority sect across the country, setting off urgent debates among Druse leaders about how best to protect their interests: stick close to the government, reach out to Sunni insurgents or stand alone and defend themselves.
The killings took place on Wednesday night in the mostly Druse village of Qalb Lawzi in Idlib Province, where the Nusra Front and allied insurgents have been advancing in recent months, seizing the provincial capital in March. The fast-moving events of recent days have thrown into sharp relief the mounting new challenges to President Bashar al-Assad during recent weeks of accelerating shifts on the battlefield, as well as fears over how the Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front, treats civilians and minorities as it consolidates power and advances in new areas.
The episode — said to have begun with an argument over the Nusra Front’s demand to confiscate a government soldier’s house — comes as the militant group seeks to portray itself to Syrians as being more tolerant and willing to share power in local governance than the rival extremists of the Islamic State. Walid Jumblatt, a member of the Lebanese Parliament and the region’s pre-eminent Druse leader, declared on his Twitter account that Druse should give up on the government and reconcile with the restive Sunni community that surrounds them in southern Syria, where the uprising against Mr. Assad broke out more than four years ago.
The killings came at a time of ferment for Syria’s Druse, who have largely remained neutral or supportive of the government of President Bashar al-Assad, but who have increasingly resisted sending sons to fight in the army, preferring to keep them home to defend their own areas. “The regime is finished,” Mr. Jumblatt declared in an interview in his house in Beirut on Thursday, as insurgents entered a military base in the southern province of Sweida for the first time in four years of war, two days after seizing a major base in neighboring Dara’a.Syrian Druse, “before being Druse, are part of Syria, and they are Arabs,” he said. “Their natural environment is Sunni. Their only way is to reconcile with that environment, with the people of Dara’a, the first people who revolted against Assad.”
In recent days, fighting has encroached closer than ever to the mostly Druse province of Sweida in southern Syria, and on Thursday, insurgents entered a military base in the province for the first time during four years of war. A spokesman for the Southern Front, which includes elements that receive American aid through a covert C.I.A. program, said the group had taken Al Tha’ala air base, days after seizing a major base in neighboring Dara’a Province. Mr. Jumblatt said his position was unchanged despite an episode Wednesday night in Idlib Province in the north, where at least 20 Druse residents were killed after a dispute with Nusra Front fighters. He condemned the killings, adding that they should be viewed in the context of a war that has killed more than 200,000 Syrians.
Syrian state television denied that the air base had been seized, saying government forces had repelled the attack. The violence erupted, according to anti-government activists, when a Tunisian commander of the group tried to confiscate the house of a government fighter; the owners of the house objected, supporters gathered, brandishing sticks and the Nusra fighters opened fire. A Nusra member, Mohammad Feezo, said that residents fired first and that two Nusra fighters were killed.
The insurgents have advanced into the province as fighters from the Islamic State have approached from the north. Residents and Druse leaders have complained that the government has failed to provide sufficient protection. Some Druse have broached the topic of seeking an understanding with insurgents from the surrounding areas to maintain their safety. Residents say that tensions in the village, Qalb al-Lawzi, had been raised earlier when Nusra fighters pressured them to convert to Islam, even while other insurgent groups, though allied with Nusra on the battlefield, let them conduct their daily lives and customs.
Walid Jumblatt, a member of Lebanon’s Parliament and a Druse leader, said an emergency meeting of Druse leaders would be held on Friday. He appealed for caution in reacting to the episode to the north in Idlib Province, saying on Twitter that “inflammatory speech” would “make things worse.” In the mostly Druse Sweida Province, in the south, a different drama was unfolding. Mortars fell on the city of Sweida, sending people fleeing toward Damascus from an area where up to now few have been displaced. Druse in Sweida have largely remained neutral or supportive of the Assad government, but have increasingly resisted sending sons to fight in the army, preferring to keep them home to defend their own areas.The insurgent offensive was led by the Southern Front, which includes elements that the United States deems sufficiently moderate to receive American aid through a covert C.I.A. program, yet at the same time have often cooperated in battle with Nusra.
There were conflicting reports about the attack on Wednesday in Idlib, but a general picture emerged of a heated dispute that escalated until a member of the Nusra Front fired on villagers. By evening, state media was declaring that government reinforcements had pushed back the insurgent advance on the air base. And leaders of the Southern Front — seeking to preserve international support and perhaps the backing of locals, had issued statements condemning the Idlib killings as “a crime against Syrian coexistence and the future.”
Tensions erupted after Nusra Front fighters, led by a Tunisian commander, tried to confiscate the home of a government soldier, according to Hiba Izzedine, a Syrian from nearby Maarat Misreen, who said she had sent a member of her Turkey-based nongovernmental organization to the town to find out what had happened. “ We affirm that the people of Sweida are our brothers and our people,” the statement said. “We have not and will not fight them, and we will be with them hand in hand to confront all threats to the province if they ask us to do so.”
According to that account, the family objected, and supporters gathered brandishing sticks. The commander then shot at residents, eventually killing 24, including a girl who was watching the melee.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group with a network of contacts in Syria, offered a similar account.
Mohamad Feeza, a Nusra Front member in Idlib, sent a statement via text message that described a similar dispute, but he said that a resident was the first to draw a gun. That provoked a shootout that left “many people from both sides” dead, he said.
Ms. Izzedine said that the village had long-running tensions with the Nusra Front but had good relations with other insurgent groups, like Ahrar al-Sham — which recently joined the Nusra Front fighters in a coalition called the Army of Conquest that has made sweeping advances.
Wi’am Wahhab, a Lebanese Druse who heads a pro-Assad political party, recently called on the government to send more help to the area. Mr. Jumblatt, the Lebanese member of Parliament who is a sharp critic of Mr. Assad, has called for “reconciliation” with the surrounding Horan area, much of it held by insurgents.