Sectarian Clashes Erupt in Syria, Killing 12

Deadly clashes fueled by sectarian tensions erupted on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing at least 12 people, Syrian officials and a war monitoring group said on Tuesday.

The fighting began overnight from Monday to Tuesday in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, which has a large population from the minority Druse sect. It came after an audio clip circulated on social media of a man insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The clip was attributed to a Druse cleric.

The cleric and Druse religious figures in Jaramana denied the accusation. The Syrian Interior Ministry said that its initial findings showed that the cleric was not responsible and appealed for calm.

As public anger over the clip grew, unidentified fighters in armored vehicles amassed overnight outside Jaramana and began shelling the city, setting off heavy gun battles, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war-monitoring group based in Britain.

It was the latest wave of sectarian violence to hit Syria since Islamist rebels overthrew the dictator Bashar al-Assad in December, stoking fears among the country’s many minority groups that those rebels — who now control the government and military — will marginalize or even target them.

The audio clip also set off demonstrations in a number of other cities, with some of the protesters inciting violence against the Druse, according to the Observatory.

The Observatory did not say who was behind the attack on Jaramana, which also wounded 15 people. But local Druse religious authorities in the city said in a statement that they held the government “fully responsible for what happened and any worsening of the situation.”

The spiritual leader of the Syrian Druse community, Hikmat al-Hijri, accused Islamist extremists of being behind the attacks. Mr. al-Hijri is vocal critic of the country’s new rebel leadership.

As day broke on Tuesday, Syrian security forces deployed on the outskirts of Jaramana and placed a security cordon around the area to prevent additional clashes, the interior ministry said, adding that members of the government’s security forces were among the casualties in the clashes.

Syrian officials later met with Druse religious figures and community leaders from Jaramana. They agreed to hold those involved in the attack accountable, according to Syria’s state news agency, SANA.

It was not the first time that the area had seen sectarian violence in recent months. Deadly fighting broke out in Jaramana around the beginning of March as well, when Druse fought gun battles with the new government’s security forces.

Syria is a predominantly Sunni Muslim nation, while the Druse practice a secretive religion and do not consider themselves Muslims. The rebels who led the overthrow of Mr. al-Assad belonged to a Sunni Islamist group that was once linked to Al Qaeda.

The country’s new leaders have wrestled to integrate the complex web of armed groups operating across the country into the new state apparatus. Several of the strongest Druse militias are in talks with the government about their conditions for integrating into the new army.

Syria has already seen one serious wave of sectarian-driven killings. The incidents occurred last month in two coastal provinces that have large populations of Alawites, the minority group that the Assad family belongs to. The area once formed the heartland of Mr. al-Assad’s base of support.

The violence began with Assad loyalists launching a coordinated attack on the new government’s forces in the coastal region. Thousands of pro-government gunmen then stormed the two provinces and killed more than 1,600 civilians, mostly Alawites, within a few days, according to the Observatory.

The violence underscored the difficulty Syria’s new leaders are facing in controlling the various armed groups and former rebels who have nominally joined the government.

“There is genuine fear among citizens and city residents that the situation may slide into a dangerous spiral, repeating the grim experience of the coastal region,” said Rabee Mounzer, a Druse community leader from Jaramana.