Develpments in Syria

From Akram, Angry Arab correspondent:

"Today at noon, at the church of Saint-Joseph in Tabala, Damascus, hundreds gathered to participate in an emotional funeral of the young man Hanna Al-Samara. Samara was one of six of Jaramana's popular committees who have been killed the day before yesterday on one of the committees checkpoints located at the entrances of the town. The five other victims were of the Druze community (More on this can be read here- Arabic). The so-cold popular committees are civilian self-defense groups that have been formed, since the beginning of the Syrian uprising, in the neighborhoods of many Syrian cities, under the auspices of the Syrian regime who, at least, turned a blind eye to this dangerous phenomenon.

Jaramana is a town of 130.000 residents located 5 Kilometers southeast of the Syrian capital. It used to be a pure Druze village until the eighties of the 20^th century, when the village began to attract the middle-income Christians escaping the unbelievably high prices of real estate in Damascus. Since 2003, with the beginning of the war on Iraq, large numbers of Iraqi have immigrated to Jaramana. Jaramana is, directly, connected to Damascus through Al-Dweila'a neighborhood and is surrounded with a number of Sunni towns (Al-Mleiha, Jissreen, Kafr Batna, Zamalka, …). There is also a Palestinian refugee camp near the town bearing its same name.

Until recently, most of the popular committees were unarmed. However, this has changed quickly. Firearms began to appear and, with them, some unfortunate events began to occur. In a previous post, I reported the execution of someone accused of killing a member of the committees. I said, then, that this report is unconfirmed. Now, I can confirm the incident. This piece (Arabic) details the madness that Jaramana is experiencing.

It's difficult to separate this tragic incidence from a general context that, seemingly, aims to drag the Druze community to engage in a conflict of which it tried to distance itself. The Syrian regime doesn't seem far from this "conspiracy". Al-Tawhid Al-Arabi party of Weeam Wahhab appears to be actively engaged in this trend. Yesterday the Syrian branch of the party issued a communiqué (Arabic) warning that the members, the political and military leadership, and all those who fight, inform and promote the Free Syrian Army in Al-Sweidaa and elsewhere will be legitimate targets of us and will be treated as terrorists and assassin Zionists. They will see how weapons are to be used and what the virility is … The tone of the communiqué looks too strong considering the isolated nature of the incident that motivated it.

Syria is boiling and the major combats in Damascus and, more recently in Aleppo, might not be the most important element. One can't speculate the exact location or event that will trigger the civil war…What is certain, however, is that it will start... and sooner than expected".