At least 100 people have been killed in Syria over two days of sectarian violence, most of them Druze fighters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Thursday.
Syrian Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri on Thursday condemned what he called a "genocidal campaign" against his people.
In a statement, Hijri described the violence in Jaramana and Sahnaya, near Damascus, as an "unjustifiable genocidal campaign" and urged immediate intervention by "international forces to maintain peace and prevent the continuation of these crimes".
His call comes after sectarian clashes between Syrian security forces, fighters aligned with them, and local Druze fighters killed 17 people in Jaramana on Monday night and 22 people in Sahnaya on Tuesday night, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) monitor.
On Wednesday, 15 Druze fighters were killed in an ambush near Damascus, according to SOHR and local outlet Suweyda 24.
The fighters were killed in "an ambush carried out by forces affiliated with the ministries of interior and defense and gunmen associated with them," the Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources on the ground in Syria, told AFP.
The violence was sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous to Islam.
AFP was unable to confirm the recording's authenticity.
A truce agreement was reached on Wednesday in Jaramana and Sahnaya following meetings between Druze representatives and government officials.
Syrian authorities announced the deployment of their forces in Sahnaya to ensure security, accusing 'outlaw groups' of instigating the clashes.
However, Hijri said he no longer trusts "an entity pretending to be a government... because the government does not kill its people through its extremist militias... and then claim they were unruly elements after the massacres".
"The government (should) protect its people," he added.
The latest round of violence follows a series of massacres in Syria's coast in March, where the Observatory said security forces and allied groups killed more than 1,700 civilians, mostly Alawites.
It was the worst bloodshed since the December ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, who is from the minority community.
In a statement on Wednesday, Syria's foreign ministry vowed to "protect all components" of society, including the Druze, and expressed its rejection of "foreign interference".
With AFP
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