At least 14 people have been killed in a suburb of Damascus, Syria, in clashes between Syrian security forces and fighters from the minority Druze sect, amid rising religious tensions, a non-governmental organization said today.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll in the clashes that took place overnight had risen to 14.
According to her, seven Druze fighters were killed, as well as seven members of the security forces and affiliated groups.
The cause of the conflict was a video posted on social media of a man insulting the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that it was investigating the audio recording and called on citizens to remain calm.
The situation is also complicated because the Israeli Ministry of Defense ordered the army this spring to defend the Druze from Syrian forces in the area where this morning's conflict took place.
The Druze are a minority group that emerged in the 10th century as an offshoot of Shiite Islam. More than half of the approximately one million Druze in the world live in Syria. The rest live mostly in Lebanon and Israel, including the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed in 1981.
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