A black sports utility vehicle sliced like a shark through the Syrian town of Ashurafiesanaya on Friday morning blows away the siren blur, an armed man with truckful who was relegated to it.
Government forces have turned the town into a sectarian battlefield for two days this week, killing dozens of people, raising dozens of people to see the unstable grips on the security of new Syrian leaders, and regaining control from armed groups. Now, government representatives had arrived in the skeptical town to pledge peace.
In a well-ventilated, echoing religious conference hall, two officials in the lawsuit were talking about unity with leaders who held white ears in traditional red-covered white hats and religious minority.
“We're all on one ship,” said Jameel Mudawwar, the region's top official. “If it sinks, God is forbidden, we will all sink.”
The words were nothing new, but this time there was action.
Syrian major hay militia, which ruled the strategic belts of southern Syria near Israel, resisted pushing them to fold into national forces by the new Islamic government.
But as bloody people appeared this week, Asurafie Sanaya's local hay leaders went the other way. In exchange for government concessions, including a promise to investigate abuse committed during the clash, they agreed to abandon their arms and consolidate some of the fighters into the government's troops.
“We must love each other. We should all stand up to each other,” Sheikh Abu Rabbi Haji Ali, the town's 86-year-old chief's religious leader, said at a meeting on Friday. “We don't want to carry weapons, we don't want to oppose the nation.”
It was something the government had hoped to hear for months now after rebels from the Syrian Sunni Muslim majority overthrew Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship in December. However, many Syrians in many religious and ethnic minorities in the country are wary of their new leader amid repeated convulsions of violence targeting minorities, including hay.
This week, the shaking audio clip aimed at the Prophet Muhammad to sunni extremists and slander the Prophet Muhammad to attack druse, including Asurafie Sanaya in the southern capital of Damascus. At least 101 people have been killed, including government forces, dry fighters and civilians, according to the Syrian Human Rights Observatory, a British-based war monitor.
In Ashrafieh Sahnaya, where various denominations coexisted peacefully for a long time, mortars and shells collided with the building. The drones raided from the air and residents were covered indoors as local hay fighters fought government forces and armed Sunni extremists.
The rebel coalition that overthrew al-Assad, including the factions of Islamic extremists remaining outside central control, shows little ability to restrain them.
Israel, close to Israel's hay minority, launched airstrikes on targets of the Syrian government, protecting Syrian hay and intervening.
There are over a million hay in the Middle East, and over a million hay in mostly Syria and Lebanon, as well as Jordan and Israel. They practice secret derivatives of Islam.
By Friday, bloodshed seemed more like a raw wound to many than memories.
One man at Friday's meeting demanded a sense of security and security from the government. Distributing the tensions of reconciliation among others in attendance, he condemned the government forces of the massacre civilians.
The officials of the meeting called for patience.
“We promise you a better life,” said Mudawwar, a government official. “What happens to you will happen to us. It is the government's duty to protect everyone.”
Some listeners bought it.
Haji Ali's nephew Sale Makiki said he lost five relatives this week, including his father, son and uncle. However, he said he was willing to move forward.
“The mistake happened, but now there's a guarantee,” he said. The government released 32 local men who were later detained during the clash, meeting the main drafting demand.
However, outside the meeting hall, there were differences of opinion.
Across the street, 42-year-old Bahira Haji Ali leaned out of the window to see the Sheikh, whose relatives depart.
“It's good that there were men who resisted,” she said of the local hay militia. “We can't imagine the sounds we heard – shellfish, drone.” She added, it was difficult to trust the government forces, she might feel different if Ashurafie Sanaya men were involved.
Regarding Druse Militias weapons, Haj Ali said:
There was disagreement in the town about how the violence began.
Some Sunnis said that Druse extremists attacked government checkpoints after militants attacked nearby towns, but Druse said Sunni extremists were the first to attack.
Broken glass and bullet casings were scattered across the ground around the town square. After Friday's prayers ended at a nearby mosque, dozens of young men marched into the square and waved the flags of Hayat Taharil al-Sham, a former Sunni rebel group that came to power in December.
“One, one, one,” they chanted. “There's only one Syrian.”
But more often, it was their sect, not their country that they emphasized.
“These are Sunni,” they chanted. “The Prophet Muhammad is our eternal leader.”
