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Israel's bombing of Syria puts Druze minority in peril
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6hon MSN
The Israeli military has launched a rare airstrike in the heart of Damascus hitting a Syrian Defense Ministry building, as clashes in the southern Syrian city of Sweida continues to flare.
Israel said it "struck the entrance of the Syrian regime's military headquarters" and warns of more "painful blows".
Israel carried out a series of powerful strikes on the Syrian capital Damascus Wednesday, escalating a campaign it says is in support of an Arab minority group involved in deadly clashes with Syrian government forces.
Syria's Druze have reached a ceasefire agreement with the Syrian government in Sweida that will take immediate effect, Druze religious leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou said in a video broadcast by state media on Wednesday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said the clashes started after members of a Bedouin tribe in Sweida province set up a checkpoint where they attacked and robbed a Druze man, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings between the tribes and Druze armed groups.
Israeli officials react to the ongoing violence in Syria's Sweida between regime forces and the local Druze community. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israeli Druze citizens not to cross the border amid ongoing clashes in Sweida in southern Syria on Wednesday afternoon.
As of Wednesday morning, clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed just hours after a ceasefire was announced.
A series of airstrikes has hit the Syrian capital Damascus, with Syrian state media blaming Israel. One video from a Syrian television channel shows the Ministry of Defense building being hit live on air,
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