The Druze Massacre—and Why Israel Attacked Syria скачать в хорошем качестве

The Druze Massacre—and Why Israel Attacked Syria

Think for yourself. Subscribe to The Free Press today: https://thefp.pub/3TlK4t6 Many horrifying scenes unfolded in mid-July, when sectarian violence erupted in Syria’s southern province of Sweida. According to early estimates from human rights groups, more than a thousand people were killed—hundreds of them civilians, including women and children—and tens of thousands displaced in what quickly became one of the deadliest episodes in Syria since the fall of Assad. This isn’t the first massacre targeting Syrian minorities since Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda member who vowed to unify the country, took the reins of Syria late last year. In March, hundreds of people were slaughtered in the predominantly Alawite coastal provinces of Tartus and Latakia. And long-standing tensions between the Druze and neighboring Bedouin tribes in southern Syria have flared for centuries. But what set this latest round of bloodshed apart was a chilling new development: For the first time, the new Syrian government, feted by many Western leaders as one they can do business with, formally picked a side. “This episode marks the first time that the central government in Damascus deliberately took the side of the Bedouin tribes in these clashes with the Druze,” said Michael Nahum, the chief operating officer at The Center for Peace Communications (CPC). “And it did so for fairly clear, opportunistic reasons.” Through our partnership with the CPC, The Free Press obtained rare on-the-ground footage and exclusive testimony from inside Sweida—as the fighting was still underway—to piece together the events in a remote corner of Syria with massive geopolitical consequences.