Days after a bombing at a mosque in a predominantly Alawite area, members of the religious minority in Syria demonstrated for better protections.
The demonstrations followed unrest over the weekend in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, which set off reprisal attacks on Alawites, a community once favored by the ousted Assad regime.
Judges issued arrest warrants for Bashar al-Assad and six officials of his regime in Syria for an attack that killed two journalists, including Marie Colvin.
Israel threatened to escalate attacks on Syrian government forces unless they withdrew from Sweida, a southern province dominated by the Druse minority.
Israel threatened to escalate attacks on Syrian government forces unless they withdrew from Sweida, a southern province dominated by the country’s Druse minority.
Druse militiamen have been fighting with Bedouins in the Sweida Province, and Syrian government forces and the Israeli military are getting involved.
Syria announced a cease-fire after deadly sectarian clashes in Sweida, near the Israeli border, and Israeli airstrikes on Damascus, the capital.
The violence underscores the government’s challenge to assert nationwide control as ethnic and religious tensions simmer after the end of the civil war.
The violence underscores the government’s challenge to assert nationwide control as ethnic and religious tensions simmer after the end of the civil war.