Syrian estate agent Fahd Haidar shuttered his business and got out his rifle to defend his hometown of Jaramana when it came under attack this week by militants loyal to the new government.
Seven Druze fighters were among 17 people killed in the Damascus suburb as clashes raged from Monday into Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
On Wednesday, the sectarian violence spread to the nearby town of Sahnaya, where 22 combatants were killed, the Britain-based war monitor said.
Photo: AP
Fourteen years after former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s bloody suppression of protests triggered a devastating civil war, Haidar said he feared a return to “chaos,” a slide into a “quagmire of grievances that will affect every Syrian.”
He appealed to the new authorities, who took over after al-Assad’s ouster in December last year, to step back from the brink and find “radical solutions” to rein in “uncontrolled gangs” like those who attacked his mainly Druze and Christian hometown this week.
In Jaramana, Druze leaders on Tuesday evening reached a deal with government representatives to put a halt to the fighting.
On Wednesday morning, an Agence France-Presse correspondent saw hundreds of armed Druze, some of them just boys, deployed across the town.
Behind mounds of earth piled up as defenses, Druze fighters handed out weapons and ammunition.
“For the past two days, the people of Jaramana have been on a war footing,” local activist Rabii Mondher said. “Everybody is scared — of war ... of coming under siege, of a new assault and new martyrs.”
Like many residents in the confessionally mixed town, Mondher said he hoped “peace will be restored ... because we have no choice but to live together.”
Mounir Baaker lost his nephew Riadh in this week’s clashes.
“We don’t take an eye for an eye,” he said tearfully, as he received the condolences of friends and neighbors.
“Jaramana is not used to this,” he said, holding up a photograph of his slain nephew, who was among a number of young Druze men from the town who signed up to join the new security forces after al-Assad’s ouster.
“We’re brought up to be tolerant, not to strike back and not to attack anyone, whoever they are, but we defend ourselves if we are attacked,” he said.
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of
The Chinese public maintains relatively warm sentiments toward Taiwan and strongly prefers non-military paths to improving cross-strait relations, a recent survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University showed. The “China Pulse” research project, which polled 2,506 adults between Oct. 27 last year and Jan. 1 this year, found that 86 percent of respondents support strengthening cultural ties, while 81 percent favor deepening economic interaction. The report, co-authored by political scientists at Emory University and advisors at the Carter Center, indicates that the Chinese public views Taiwan’s importance through a lens of shared history and culture rather than geopolitical
Cannabis-based medicines have shown little evidence of effectiveness for treating most mental health and substance-use disorders, according to a large review of past studies published in a major medical journal on Monday. Medical use of cannabinoids has been expanding, including in the US, Canada and Australia, where many patients report using cannabis products to manage conditions such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep problems. Researchers reviewed data from 54 randomized clinical trials conducted between 1980 and May last year involving 2,477 participants for their analysis published in The Lancet. The studies assessed cannabinoids as a primary treatment for mental disorders or substance-use
RSS