Sectarian clashes between forces linked to Syria's new authorities and Druze fighters spread overnight near Damascus, leaving 13 people dead, state media and a monitor said Wednesday.
The expanding violence is a major challenge to the Islamist authorities who overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December and comes after sectarian massacres last month in Syria's Alawite coastal heartland.
While seeking to present a more moderate image to the world, Syria's new authorities must also contend with pressures from radical Islamists within their ranks.
State news agency SANA, citing the health ministry, said 11 people were killed and an unspecified number wounded "after outlaw groups targeted civilians and security forces" in the Sahnaya area.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said two local fighters were killed in Sahnaya during "clashes between gunmen linked to the authorities and local Druze fighters".
Sahnaya is around 15 kilometres (nine miles) southwest of the capital and is home to residents from Syria's Druze and Christian minorities.
Deadly clashes the previous night in Jaramana, a mainly Druze and Christian suburb southeast of the capital, were sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous.
AFP was unable to confirm the recording's authenticity.
'Outlaw groups'
Local activist in Sahnaya, Samer Rafaa, told AFP that "we didn't sleep... right now mortar shells are falling on our homes".
"The authorities are absent... we beg them to do their part," Rafaa said, adding that "people are dying."
Citing a security source, SANA said that "outlaw groups" in Sahnaya attacked a security force checkpoint on Tuesday night, wounding three personnel, while other groups fired at security and civilian vehicles elsewhere.
Information ministry official Ali al-Rifai told journalists the dead included five security personnel targeted by "sniper" fire by "outlaw armed groups".
The six others, from the southern province of Daraa, were inside a vehicle that was targeted, Rifai added.
The Observatory also reported Druze gunmen targeted checkpoints belonging to forces affiliated with the authorities, adding a curfew was imposed and local officials met to discuss ways to restore calm.
Druze fighter Karam, declining to provide his full name due to the security situation, told AFP by telephone that "clashes began around four kilometres from the town and spread to its outskirts".
"The sound of fighting has not stopped since last night," said Karam, 27, as gunfire rang out in the background, adding that "there is a body on the road ahead of me... restoring calm will require great effort".
The interior ministry said authorities would "strike with an iron first all those who seek to destabilise Syria's security", SANA reported.
'Incitement'
In overnight clashes a day earlier in Jaramana, the Observatory reported 17 dead, including eight Druze fighters and nine gunmen linked to the authorities.
Calm returned on Tuesday as Syria's government promised Druze leaders to try those responsible for the violence.
Authorities also promised measures to "put an end to incitement to sectarian and regional division", according to a text seen by AFP.
The interior ministry had reported clashes "between groups of gunmen" in Jaramana, saying security forces deployed "to break up the clashes and protect the residents".
After violence in Jaramana last month, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned the Islamist-led authorities not "to harm the Druze" minority, which is also spread across Lebanon and Israel.
Last month's massacres on the Alawite-populated coast were the worst bloodshed in Syria since Islamist-led forces overthrew longtime president Bashar al-Assad in December. The Assad family belongs to the Alawite minority.
According to the Observatory, security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly Alawites.
The government of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led the offensive that toppled Assad, accused loyalists to the former leader of sparking the violence by attacking security forces, and has launched an inquiry.
With AFP
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