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zion¿st Occupation Forces Face Setback in southern Syria: Soldiers Wounded, Vehicle Destroyed in Fierce Clash
Western Damascus Countryside – A zion¿st military incursion into the Syrian town of Beit Jinn ended in a significant setback for the occupation forces on Friday, resulting in numerous casualties and the abandonment of a military vehicle, according to Israeli and Syrian reports.
zionist media confirmed that a force came under heavy fire at close range, leaving 13 soldiers wounded, three of them in critical condition. The confrontation was so intense that the soldiers were forced to retreat from the town, leaving behind a Hummer vehicle. Reports indicate that the Israeli Air Force later bombed the abandoned vehicle to prevent its capture.
The situation on the ground was described as chaotic. Israeli media revealed that air support, which rushed to the scene, was unable to carry out effective strikes due to the close-quarters nature of the fighting between the occupation soldiers and local fighters. Following the clash, the Israeli occupation army is continuing search operations in the area and reinforcing its ground presence.Syrian Sources Report Deadly Airstrikes
Meanwhile, Syrian local sources reported a severe escalation. They stated that an Israeli airstrike on Beit Jinn this morning killed 13 civilians and wounded 25 others. The airstrike reportedly followed an initial incursion by an Israeli military patrol into the town, which was then encircled, leading to fierce clashes with local residents. After the fighting, the Israeli force withdrew to the Bat al-Warda hill on the town’s outskirts.Reconnaissance flights over Beit Jinn and the western Damascus countryside have been intensive in the aftermath of the events.
This incident underscores the ongoing violations of Syrian sovereignty by Israeli occupation forces, which have occupied large areas of southern Syria and conduct near-daily incursions into various regions.
Source: Al-Manar Eglish Website
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zion¿st Enemy Continues Violations of Lebanese Sovereignty as Beirut Files UN Complaint
zion¿st occupation forces have escalated their breaches of Lebanese sovereignty, violating the ceasefire agreement and UN Security Council Resolution 1701 with a new wave of attacks across the south.
The latest aggression came Friday, as an Al-Manar correspondent reported that Israeli occupation forces destroyed a home in the town of Houla using explosive charges dropped by a quadcopter drone.
Throughout the day, Israeli reconnaissance drones also flew at low altitude over several southern regions, adding to the atmosphere of ongoing tension and repeated violations.
More Violations
Later on Friday, the Al-Manar correspondent reported that an Israeli occupation drone targeted a minivan-type vehicle in the town of Al-Qantara in south Lebanon.These attacks followed a series of assaults on Thursday, during which Israeli forces targeted multiple southern areas, including Mahmoudiyah, Jabbour, Jarmaq, and the outskirts of Loueizeh and Jrajrou.
Amid the continuing violations, the Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Lebanon has submitted a formal complaint to the UN Security Council against Israel for constructing two walls inside Lebanese territory, condemning the move as a clear breach of international law and national sovereignty.
Source: Al-Manar Website
zionist tank stationed at the Bayad–Blida outpost fired a shell toward the area between Blida and Aitaroun (Nov. 28, 2025) -
13 Syrians killed, 25 injured in zion¿ aggression on Damascus countryside
Aftermath of zionist airstrikes on Beit Jinn village, southwest of Damascus, which left 13 Syrians dead and 25 others wounded.
Even mosques were targeted in the attacks.
https://t.me/presstv/166252At least 13 Syrian people have been killed and more than two dozen others injured in zion¿st strikes on the countryside of the capital Damascus amid the occupying regime’s heightened incursions on the Arab country since the fall of former president Bashar al-Assad and the rule of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants.
The casualties, as the Syrian TV reported on Friday, took place in an overnight Israeli attack by helicopters and drones on the town of Beit Jinn in the Damascus suburbs after Israeli forces entered the town and were surrounded by local residents, prompting the outbreak of gunfire and confrontations.
“The helicopters of the occupation army and its artillery shelled Beit Jinn, located on the foothills of Mount Hermon, southwest of Damascus, resulting in 13 martyrs and wounding 25 civilians,” the report said, falling short of specifying the number of the injured and the scope of damage.
The Syrian News Channel — Al-Ikhbariyah Syria — confirmed that the attack coincided with Israeli soldiers entering the town of Beit Jinn as the surrounding areas were being shelled by the regime’s artillery.
The news outlet underlined that the shelling came after clashes between local residents and a patrol of the Israeli occupation army that penetrated the southern town and “kidnapped” three young men.
Having been engaged in a two-hour fierce exchange of fire, the Israeli soldiers were forced to withdraw from Beit Jinn and reposition on the hill of Butt al-Warda on the outskirts of the town.
Israeli media acknowledged that six of the regime’s forces were wounded in the armed clashes, including three seriously, saying the occupation army was subjected to a “sudden ambush” that confused the soldiers and led to the intervention of additional reserve units along with warplanes in an attempt to open a safe passage.
The Israeli media declined to provide further details of the aggression on Beit Jinn, which has been witnessing a surge in the displacement of locals and movement towards neighboring villages following Israel’s frequent acts of aggression.
The violent raid came a day after Israeli forces carried out a new ground incursion into Umm al-Luqas village in the countryside of the southwestern city of Quneitra.
The official SANA news agency said that an Israeli unit of four vehicles entered the village, raided houses, and then withdrew.Syria has condemned the repeated Israeli incursions as violation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement and UN resolutions and called on the international community to enforce compliance and ensure the occupying entity withdraws fully and adheres to the agreement.
Israel has conducted repeated acts of aggression across the Syrian territory following the collapse of Assad’s government last year. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his forces to push deeper into Syrian territory and seize several strategic locations.
Instead of resistance to the ongoing Israeli military operations, the HTS-led regime’s lack of action and its normalization overtures to Tel Aviv appear to have given Israel greater leeway to expand its occupation and increase the intensity of its airstrikes.
Foreign-backed militants, led by HTS – a group that was previously affiliated with the al-Qaeda terrorist group – took control of Damascus and declared an end to Assad’s rule last December.PressTV report

This photo shows the aftermath of zionist strikes on a vehicle in the Syrian town of Beit Jinn in the Damascus suburbs on November 28, 2025. (Via social media) -
A History Dripping With Blood: Mapping U.S. Brutality From Vietnam to the Philippines
Throughout its long history of wars and transcontinental occupations, the United States has raised the banners of freedom while hiding beneath them fangs that know no mercy. From the jungles of Vietnam to the plains of Mozambique, and from the mountains of Colombia to the islands of the Philippines, the United States has left behind scorched and devastated lands, crucified peoples, and generations born on the ashes of wars ignited by a hand that never hesitated to turn green earth into graveyards, resources into spoils, and human beings into mere numbers in ledgers of killing.
This is a history written only with the blood of millions, the screams of mothers, the tears of the displaced, and the rubble of cities crushed under bombardment, looting, and destruction. It is a history revealing that brutality has long been a fixed and institutionalized method in American policy, one that shows its ugly face whenever wealth is to be plundered, a country is violated, or a people are punished simply for daring to dream of freedom.
Examples of American Brutality
Between 1959 and 1975, U.S. forces dropped nearly 8.4 million tons of bombs and napalm, and 18 million barrels of chemicals on Vietnam, destroying more than 40 percent of its fields, gardens, forests, and much of its water sources.
Several millions were killed in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia; millions more were maimed or poisoned, and nearly ten million were displaced. From 1979 through the 1990s, the U.S. assisted elements of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia in undermining the country’s socialist-leaning government, fueling a civil war that killed tens of thousands.
Regarding the targeting of national economies, the U.S. pressured Mozambique into privatizing around 1,500 state-owned enterprises, leading to severe unemployment, deep poverty, the closure of factories, a sharp decline in humanitarian services, and a rise in unemployment, crime, homelessness, and prostitution.
Colombia is another country with a history of U.S.-funded repression, including the systematic killing of tens of thousands of workers, students, farmers, and clergy by armed forces and militias for opposing their overseers. Since 1986, around 2,000 Colombian trade unionists have been killed by CIA-supported squads. In addition to weapons and helicopters, the U.S. military also provided defoliants that harmed Colombia’s environment and people.American multinational corporations have paid police and military forces in countries such as Indonesia, Nigeria, India, Burma, and Colombia to beat, arrest, and even kill labor activists or individuals protesting environmental damage and displacement.
In the late 1980s, the U.S. National Security apparatus helped Mexico eliminate progressive reformist elements. Mexican authorities admitted to torturing and killing at least 275 political dissidents. One survivor described being raped and tortured and then forced to watch her husband and one-year-old daughter being tortured.
Election Manipulation
U.S. agents have repeatedly interfered in elections in Jamaica, Chile, El Salvador, Panama, Yugoslavia, and other countries using large sums of money, election fraud, and fear campaigns. If the results remained unsatisfactory to American leaders, they would declare them “rigged” or “false,” regardless of the assessments by international observers.
This occurred in revolutionary Nicaragua in the 1980s, socialist Yugoslavia in the 1990s and 2000, and reform-seeking Haiti in 2000.
Such countries become targets of U.S. destabilization. After Hugo Chávez became president of Venezuela and used oil revenues to fund social programs for the poor, the White House labeled him a dictator, warmonger, and enemy of the United States. It accused him of distorting American efforts toward friendly relations, declared him “illegitimate,” and recognized an alternative president without elections or legal basis.
Occupation of Countries
In 1846, with majority approval from the U.S. Senate, the United States declared war on Mexico. After two years, it occupied vast Mexican territories, including California and parts of Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, annexing them into American territory.
The United States attacked Honduras in 1860, purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, and in 1881 supported Peru in its war against Chile in exchange for the use of Chimbote port as a military base, along with coal mines, mining lines, and the port itself.In 1887, the U.S. occupied Pearl Harbor and transformed it into a naval base under the pretext of “protecting trade.” In 1893, it overthrew the monarch of Hawaii and formally annexed the islands in 1898, while also intervening in Venezuela in 1895.
In 1898, Spain lost most of its colonies in the Americas. Cuba and Puerto Rico, long under Spanish control, were embroiled in internal revolutions. Under the slogan of “defending democracy,” the U.S. waged war on Spain, occupying Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Guam. Under an agreement with Spain, it occupied the Philippines for $20,000.
Although Cuba gained formal independence in 1902, it remained under American military occupation. The U.S. imposed constitutional reforms allowing it to reoccupy Cuba whenever it wished “in the name of freedom,” while maintaining rights to purchase or lease islands for American bases.
The purchase and occupation of the Philippines demonstrated U.S. expansion beyond the “Monroe Doctrine,” as the Philippines lay far outside the Western Hemisphere.The Philippines produced sugar and coconut oil and consumed U.S. goods. American imperialists argued that Filipinos were “too backward” for independence to lead to progress. Filipinos, having fought Spain for independence, opposed U.S. annexation and established the Philippine Republic in 1899 under Emilio Aguinaldo, leader of the liberation wars.
Despite its slogan of “liberation and democracy,” the U.S. sent General MacArthur to the Philippines in 1901. After massacring pro-independence fighters, American forces arrested Aguinaldo and crushed the independence movement, proving themselves—according to the narrative—“more barbaric than the Spanish and British colonialists.” Roughly 200,000 Filipinos died in the conflict.
After suppressing northern resistance, American forces turned to the Muslim Moro population in the southern islands of the Philippines. Beginning in 1903, the Moro province was placed under American occupation, with three harsh military governors appointed for a decade.Conclusion
When the threads of this blood-stained record are woven together, a complete system of American brutality emerges—one that views the world as an open field for experiments in power. Every weak nation becomes a potential battleground, every non-American resource a target for plunder, and every people who raise their heads or dream of independence become legitimate targets for bombs, sanctions, coups, or smear campaigns cloaked in the language of freedom and democracy.
Reflecting on this violent legacy exposes the falseness of American claims about human rights. The United States burns Arab and Islamic countries just as it once burned the forests of Vietnam with napalm, supported death squads in Colombia, crushed the will of peoples in Latin America, and violated the Philippines, Mexico, Hawaii, and others under the banner of “liberation.”
Worse than military occupation is political and economic domination, which empties nations from within, turns their futures into the property of multinational corporations, and leaves millions trapped in cycles of poverty, hunger, and homelessness.
Experience after experience has shown, according to this narrative, that America values human beings only insofar as they serve its interests, and supports nations only when their lands are corridors for its fleets or markets for its wealth.
As long as this approach persists, the peoples of the world will remember that behind the modern face of the “empire” lies a brutality untouched by conferences, unpolished by media, and undisguised by diplomatic language, no matter how refined.
This report serves as a mirror revealing what the United States has attempted to bury—a mirror that retells the truth as lived by afflicted nations: that American brutality was never an exception, but the rule.Ansarollah.com.ye

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US should invade Venezuela to hand oil to US corporations: Senior congresswoman
US Congresswoman Maria Salazar has openly called on the United States to “go in” to Venezuela so that American oil companies can exploit the world’s largest crude reserves of the South American country.
In a Fox Business interview on Wednesday, Florida Representative Salazar openly argued that the US must invade Venezuela so American oil corporations can profit from its massive petroleum reserves, the largest on the planet.
She said if Washington topples Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, US companies will enjoy a “field day” worth over a trillion dollars in economic activity – laying bare that the push for confrontation has little to do with democracy or security and everything to do with controlling Venezuelan oil.
“Venezuela, for those Americans who do not understand why we need to go in … Venezuela, for the American oil companies, will be a field day, because it will be more than a trillion dollars in economic activity,” Salazar said.
To bolster her argument, the congresswoman launched into a series of strange accusations—asserting, without providing evidence, that Venezuela harbors groups hostile to the US, and even claiming that Maduro is distributing “uranium to Hamas, to Iran, to North Korea, and to Nicaragua.”
She also revived the long-debunked “Cartel of the Suns” narrative, which Washington now uses as a convenient label to justify intervention but Caracas insists that such a group does not exist at all.
Adding to the chorus, opposition figure María Corina Machado has echoed Washington’s allegations about Maduro, even claiming he interfered in US elections, in an attempt to entice the US into an invasion.On Tuesday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro also stressed that “oil is at the heart of” US pressure campaign on Venezuela.
“So, that’s a negotiation about oil. I believe that is (US President Donald) Trump’s logic. He’s not thinking about the democratization of Venezuela, let alone the narco-trafficking,” he further told CNN in an exclusive interview.
Petro stressed that Venezuela is not considered a major drug producer and that only a relatively small portion of the global drugs trade flows through the country.
He added that the US is trying to impose its will on its neighbors in an imperialistic manner.
“The United States cannot be considered an empire, but one of the nations among others,” the Colombian president said.
Colombia has for years served as Washington’s most dependable security and defense partner in South America, and in 2022 the Joe Biden administration elevated it to the status of a “major non-NATO ally.”
Since late August, Washington has sent warships, surveillance aircraft, and special operations units to the southern Caribbean, culminating this month with the deployment of the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group.
The US has since launched dozens of strikes on vessels, killing more than 80 people, claiming they were drug traffickers, while failing to provide any evidence to back up the claims. Legal experts have condemned the US military’s extrajudicial killing of victims as unlawful.
Although US military activity across Latin America has expanded with Marines, warships, aircraft, submarines, and drones deployed, reports suggest Trump may attempt direct talks with his Venezuelan counterpart as Maduro has reportedly reiterated his readiness for a “face-to-face” dialogue with Washington.PressTV report

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More zion¿st Violations of Lebanon’s Sovereignty Recorded
Scenes from zionist enemy attacks in southern Lebanon, including airstrikes targeting Al-Mahmoudiya, Al-Jarmaq, Al-Jabour, Al-Louaizeh suburb and Jarjouh.
https://t.me/almanarnews/229819Multiple violent zionist airstrikes hit Al-Mahmoudiya, Al-Jarmaq, Al-Aishiya, the heights of Iqlim al-Tuffah, Jabal al-Rihan, and Nabaa al-Tasseh.
zionist enemy vehicle advanced from the Al-Asi military site towards the wall area on the eastern outskirts of the town of Mais al-Jabal in southern Lebanon”. The correspondent added: “Three soldiers disembarked, breached the technical fence and the Blue Line, and searched a house about 100 meters from the border before withdrawing to the site”.
In another development, Al-Manar correspondent reported that “the Israeli enemy fired heavily from its position in Ruweisat al-Alam towards the outskirts of the town of Kfar Shuba in southern Lebanon”.
A Merkava tank stationed at Israeli occupation site recently established in Mount Blat fired two shells at Ramya border village, South Lebanon, according to Al-Manar reporter.
The zionist enemy has also fired flares over Markaba, Mais Al-Jabal and Blida border towns.
Source: Al-Manar English Websitezionist colony target the Mahmoudiyeh area and the outskirts of the town of Sojod in southern Lebanon. -
zion¿st fortifying outposts in southern Lebanon in violation of ceasefire: Satellite imagery
zionist colony bulldozers are carrying out land-clearing operations inside Lebanese territory near the southern town of Houla.
https://t.me/almanarnews/229742Satellite imagery shows the colony continues to occupy and fortify military positions in southern Lebanon in violation of Lebanese sovereignty, one year after signing a ceasefire with Hezbollah.
According to Planet Labs PBC, the zionist occupation military occupies five strategic positions along the Blue Line, the de facto border between Lebanon and the occupied territories. These positions are surrounded by earthen fortifications and connected by widened access roads.
The outposts, covering one to two hectares each, include sections for temporary buildings and military vehicles, according to an analysis by AFP, which says the access roads to these positions have also been significantly expanded to facilitate vehicle movement.
The westernmost base in the Labbouneh area lies only 150 meters from a UN peacekeeping station, while the easternmost on Hamames hill is about 1.5 kilometers inside Lebanese territory.
The analysis also shows near-total destruction of buildings in villages near the outposts due to Israel’s systematic demolition of infrastructure.
By maintaining control over southern Lebanese villages, Israel continues to violate the ceasefire it signed on November 27, 2024, which required a full withdrawal of its forces within 60 days.
Israel says it keeps these positions to ensure Hezbollah does not carry out military activities in the area.
However, analysts state that these fortified positions and demolitions mirror the war tactics employed by Israel in the Gaza Strip.According to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), the regime’s forces have committed over 7,500 air violations and nearly 2,500 ground violations in the past year, totaling almost 10,000 breaches of the ceasefire.
In a latest violation, Israel assassinated top Hezbollah commander Haitham Tabatabai in a strike on a residential area near Beirut on Sunday.
Hezbollah warned that Israel has committed a grave mistake, saying the resistance group is considering its response to the killing.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun also condemned the attack, calling it a clear demonstration of Tel Aviv’s disregard for repeated international appeals. Aoun urged the global community to act to prevent further aggression against the Lebanese people.PressTV report

This picture taken on Nov.16, 2025 shows colonial workers building a wall using heavy machines on the Yaroun border in Southern Lebanon. (Photo by AFP) -
Iran’s Parliament Speaker: zion¿st colony’s ‘Aggressive Hand’ Must Be Severed from the Region
Iran’s Parliament Speaker, Mohammad-Bagher Qalibaf, declared on Tuesday that the zion¿st colony’s “aggressive hand” must be severed from the region to halt its policy of “borderless crime.”
Addressing the legislature, Qalibaf asserted that under its “criminal prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,” the zionist colonial office has adopted a strategy that recognizes no boundaries. “For them, there is no difference between Tehran, Beirut, Doha, Islamabad, Khartoum, and Istanbul,” he stated.
The senior official’s remarks came in response to ‘Israel’s’ recent assassination of a senior commander of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, Haytham Ali Tabatabai, and four other members of the group in an airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Qalibaf emphasized that despite Tel Aviv’s attempts to destabilize the region, Hezbollah remains “strong and unwavering,” and continues to move steadily forward. He described Israel as an enemy “devoid of human values” that does not consider itself bound by any international rules or agreements.
In the face of such an adversary, Qalibaf argued that only “courage and power” could serve as a deterrent. He stressed that preventing the regime from continuing on its criminal path is essential for restoring stability to the region.
The top legislator expressed certainty that the region’s resistance movements would confront ‘Israel’s’ unabated atrocities with a coordinated and prudent response at the appropriate time. “This situation cannot continue. Patience has its limits,” he warned, adding that the resistance “calculates carefully but acts decisively… it does not seek war, but it fights well.”
Qalibaf also condemned global powers and international organizations, accusing them of bearing witness to the regime’s “brutality” while “lacking the will to stop it.”
His sentiments echoed those of Mohsen Rezaei, a former chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), who stated during a ceremony on Monday that zionis colony’s targeted killings of resistance commanders are only accelerating its own demise.Al Manar report

Iranian Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf )image from archive).
Iran – Live News – Middle East – News – Top -
Germany is offering asylum to donkeys from Gaza. Gaza’s children? Not allowed.
Germany has already evacuated at least four times as many donkeys as human beings from Gaza.
Germany is now taking in animals from Gaza while refusing entry to injured and sick Palestinians. The message is clear: in Germany’s hierarchy of “valuable” life, Palestinians are valued less than animals.Just when it seems impossible for German policy on Palestine to become more absurd, the country manages to prove otherwise. Last week, reports emerged that at least eight donkeys from Gaza had been “rescued” and flown to Germany. While the operation can be seen as part of an Israeli campaign to deprive people in Gaza of an essential means of transportation, the real outrage lies elsewhere: Germany has already evacuated at least four times as many donkeys as human beings from Gaza.“They have left behind hunger and misery, beatings and exploitation.” This is how a German newspaper opens its story about the donkeys’ “rescue” – without a single word explaining who is responsible for their suffering. Worse still, German media have not used such empathetic language for Palestinians in more than two years. Only far-left outlets still describe what is happening in Gaza as “genocide.” In the mainstream, the word is treated as a “scandal“ in itself. Reports of systematic torture of Palestinians by the Israeli army – most recently documented by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) – barely reach German audiences, and there is certainly no public outcry.
Further down, the article cheerfully notes that the donkeys, “considering all the terrible things they have experienced, are amazingly trusting” and have already “blossomed a little.” Reading similar descriptions of the psychological state of Gaza’s people in a German newspaper today would be nothing short of “revolutionary.”Further down, the article cheerfully notes that the donkeys, “considering all the terrible things they have experienced, are amazingly trusting” and have already “blossomed a little.” Reading similar descriptions of the psychological state of Gaza’s people in a German newspaper today would be nothing short of “revolutionary.”For international observers – and for South Africa’s genocide case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – one of the clearest indicators that Israel is committing genocide is the repeated dehumanization of Palestinians by Israeli government and army spokespeople, who routinely liken them to animals. Regarding Germany, one can now say this much: after two years of genocide, Ghazawis have been so thoroughly dehumanized that, in the hierarchy of “valuable” life, they rank below animals.The full Mondoweiss report

Donkeys feed on clover, in the Zeitoun neighborhood, east of Gaza, on December 5, 2020. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour/APA Images) During today’s Berlin protest, police tore down posters of Palestinian female detainees and assaulted peaceful demonstrators — a clear display of bias and repression against Palestinian voices.
https://t.me/Eyeonpalestine2/24401?single -
Syrian Alawites mobilize against Jolani’s HTS-led massacres
Jolani’s Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham terrorists open fire at peaceful protesters.
Thousands of Alawites took to the streets in protest across Syria’s coastal cities on 25 November to demonstrate against government-sponsored sectarian violence, one day after the minority’s religious leader called for mass sit-ins.
The cities of Tartous, Latakia, Baniyas, Jableh, and Homs were filled with protesters. People marched, chanted, and carried signs and slogans rejecting the ongoing violence against Alawites carried out by Syrian government forces and allied militias. Others held signs calling for “federalism,” echoing the call made by their religious leader the day before.According to local reports, Alawite protesters were shot at and injured by Syrian security forces in multiple cities, while others have been detained and taken to unknown locations.
Some Christians reportedly also took part in the demonstrations.The protests come mainly in response to a massive attack on Alawite civilians carried out by government-backed tribal militias two days ago. The attackers entered the Al-Muhajireen neighborhood in Homs, storming and burning houses and shops, vandalizing cars, and firing indiscriminately at residents.
At least two were killed and dozens were injured during the attack, which was framed as revenge for the killing of a married couple from the Bani Khaled tribe in Homs recently. An anti-Sunni sectarian slogan was found written on the wall in blood, prompting some to speculate that the murder was a false-flag aimed specifically at fueling sectarian tensions.
The Syrian Interior Ministry also said there was no evidence that it was a sectarian crime, adding that it appeared to be an attempt at “incitement.”
As the protests began on Tuesday, residents of Homs spoke to Al Mayadeen about the tribal attack and their fears of an escalated campaign of sectarian violence against Alawites.
“We thought the years of war were behind us. Suddenly, the sounds of gunfire returned to the streets, and people started running in every direction. My children slept last night in one room away from the windows … I couldn’t sleep for a single moment,” one resident said.
“Everyone is in shock,” another Homs resident told Al Mayadeen. “People are afraid of new sectarian tension. Everyone just wants calm to return.”
The coastal protests come one day after the Alawite religious leader in Syria, Ghazal Ghazal, made a call for people to take to the streets.
Ghazal urged Alawites to hold “a sit-in in their areas” to demand “federalism and political decentralization, an end to ethnic cleansing, killing, kidnapping, and captivity, and the release of [Alawites] detained in prisons.”
The statement also called on Alawites to document and record all their activities during the protests.
Thousands of Alawite civilians were massacred in March this year by Syrian government forces during a violent crackdown to quell an armed uprising carried out by members of the community.
Since then, the Alawite community has been disarmed by Damascus and has been left vulnerable to sectarian attacks and killing sprees. Young Alawite girls continue to disappear as a result of government-linked kidnapping networks, and Alawite men are regularly executed.
Thousands of Druze civilians were also massacred by government forces during clashes in Suwayda earlier this year.
The Syrian army is predominantly made up of what used to be known as the Al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Numerous other extremist factions with links to ISIS have been made official brigades in the Syrian military since the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government and the collapse of his army last year.
Government violence against minorities in Syria over the past year has prompted some to call for federalism, or the division of the country along sectarian lines.
Observers have also speculated that Israel, which established a large-scale occupation in Syria after Assad was ousted, has been pushing for federalism in a bid to divide Syria.
These speculations gained more traction after the massacres of the Druze in Suwayda in July, when Israel was publicly calling for their protection and vowing to “defend” minorities in Syria.
“The Israeli aim is to keep Syria as a weak state, divided into autonomous zones drawn along ethnic lines, and to prevent the new Syrian government from uniting Syria,” the US think tank, Atlantic Council, said in April.The Cradle Media report
Horrific scenes unfold in Syria as HTS terrorists turn the streets of Latakia into a war zone, unleashing nonstop gunfire on peaceful protesters.
https://t.me/presstv/165966