Syrian security forces were deployed across a predominately Druse town on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital, early Sunday, two days after a gunfight between government officers and armed men from a local neighborhood left one person dead and several others wounded.
A tense calm has returned to the town, Jaramana, after the deadly clash Friday night between the security forces of Syria’s new government and the Druse, a religious minority. The person killed was a security officer, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which added that nine other people were wounded.
Druse spiritual leaders blamed the killing on “an undisciplined mob that does not belong to our customs, nor to our known monotheistic traditions or customs.”
There were conflicting reports about how the episode unfolded in Jaramana, but the clash was thrust into the international spotlight on Saturday when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said he had instructed the military “to prepare and deliver a strong and clear warning message: If the regime harms the Druse — it will be harmed by us.”
The Druse are a religious minority with populations in Syria, including the Golan Heights territory, which Israel captured and illegally annexed, and in Lebanon and Israel.
Syrian Druse and government leaders swiftly and strongly rejected any threats of intervention by Israel.
“We are Syrian Arab nationals, and we await a response from the administration and government,” said Rabih Munthir, a Druse leader in Jaramana. “We are not asking for protection from anyone, and we won’t ask for protection from anyone. We are citizens who have been living on this land for more than 1,000 years.”
A Syrian security official, Lt. Col. Hossam al-Tahan, the chief of the security directorate in the Damascus suburbs, said Saturday that it was working with local leaders to track down all who had been involved in the shooting.
“We affirm that no entity will be allowed to undermine Syria’s unity,” he said, according to the Syrian state media. “Our only issue is with those who carried out the attack and assault, and we urge rational minds to recognize that this path threatens Syria’s security, stability and unity.”
Just days after Syrian rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad in early December, Israel carried out numerous incursions in Syria, raiding villages, launching hundreds of airstrikes, destroying military outposts and threatening residents. Israel has described the incursions as temporary measures to protect its own security, but they have gone on for three months and have raised fears among Syrians of a prolonged military occupation.
Israel’s attacks on Syria have been condemned internationally, and in January the United Nations said that “Syria’s sovereignty, territorial unity, and integrity must be fully restored.”
Since Mr. al-Assad and his government were ousted by the rebel coalition, its leader, Ahmed al-Shara, who was appointed interim president last month, has sought to allay concerns that his Sunni Islamist group would target religious minorities.
He has spoken regularly of the need to unite Syria’s many religious and ethnic minorities to build a new Syria after more than 13 years of a brutal civil war.
Last week, the country held its first national dialogue which included representatives from Syria’s many sects, including Sunnis, Alawites, Druse, Christians and Kurds.
Reham Mourshed and Myra Noveck contributed reporting.
