Qalb Loze massacre | |
---|---|
Part of the Syrian Civil War | |
Location | Qalb Loze, Idlib Governorate |
Date | 10 June 2015 |
Target | Druze |
Attack type | Shootout/massacre |
Deaths | 20–24 Druze, 3 al-Nusra Front members |
Perpetrators | Al-Nusra Front |
Part of a series on Druze |
---|
The Qalb Loze massacre was a massacre of Syrian Druzites on 10 June 2015 in the village of Qalb Loze in Syria's northwestern Idlib Governorate. The village was under the control of a coalition of Islamist rebels, when a Tunisian commander of one group in the coalition, the al-Nusra Front, tried to confiscate the house of a villager accused of working for the Syrian government.
When the villagers protested, Nusra fighters opened fire on the protesting villagers, [1] who were accused of blasphemy. [2] A Nusra fighter claimed the villagers opened fire first. [1] In the end, 20 people, including elderly individuals and a child, were killed. Three al-Nusra fighters were also killed. [3] Two days later, a report put the number of Druze killed at 24. [4]
The massacre sparked widespread condemnation in neighbouring Lebanon, which has a considerable Druze minority. Walid Jumblatt responded that "Any inciting rhetoric will not be beneficial, and you should remember that Bashar Assad’s policies pushed Syria into this chaos". [5] In contrast, the Lebanese Druze party chief and former government minister Wiam Wahhab urged the Druze to form an armed force to defend their community in an angry televised speech saying “We will not accept to sell Druze blood!“. His call was much in line with that of the Syrian Druze spiritual leader who directed the Druze to join the Syrian Army. [6] Subsequently, Druze fighters from Sweida assisted the Syrian Army in recapturing an airbase from the Nusra Front. [7] Prior to the Qalb Loze killings, Nusra had forced hundreds of Druze to convert to Sunni Islam, as well as desecrating their graves and destroying shrines. [8] [9] On June 22, a group of Druze lynched a wounded Syrian in the Golan Heights who was being transported to Israel for treatment, as they claimed he was a rebel fighter. [10]
Walid Kamal Jumblatt is a Lebanese politician who was the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party from 1977 until 2023. A Druze and former militia commander, Jumblatt led the Lebanese National Resistance Front and allied with the Amal Movement during the Lebanese Civil War. He worked closely with Suleiman Frangieh to oppose Amine Gemayel's rule as president in 1983. After the civil war, he initially supported Syria but later led an anti-Assad stance during the start of the Syrian Civil War. He is still active in politics, most recently leading his party, the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in the 2022 Lebanese general election.
Qalb Loze is a Druze village in northwestern Syria, administratively part of the Idlib Governorate located about 35 kilometres (22 mi) west of Aleppo. It is situated near the border with Turkey, in the A'la Mountain and is part of an area known as the "Dead Cities". According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Qalb Loze had a population of 1,290 in the 2004 census.
The Syrian Civil War is an intensely sectarian war. However, the initial phases of the uprising in 2011 featured a broad, cross-sectarian opposition to the rule of Bashar al-Assad, reflecting a collective desire for political reform and social justice, transcending ethnic and religious divisions. Over time, the civil war has largely transformed into a conflict between ruling minority Alawite government and allied Shi'a governments such as Iran; pitted against the country's Sunni Muslim majority who are aligned with the Syrian opposition and its Turkish and Persian Gulf state backers. Sunni Muslims make up the majority of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and many hold high administrative positions, while Alawites and members of almost every minority have also been active on the rebel side.
Al-Nusra Front, also known as Front for the Conquest of the Levant, was a Salafi jihadist organization fighting against Syrian government forces in the Syrian Civil War. Its aim was to overthrow president Bashar al-Assad and establish an Islamic state ruled by Sharia law in Syria.
The 2012–2014 Quneitra Governorate clashes began in early November 2012, when the Syrian Army began engaging with rebels in several towns and villages of the Quneitra Governorate. The clashes quickly intensified and spilled into the UN-supervised neutral demilitarized zone between Syrian controlled territory and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The Lebanese–Syrian border clashes were a series of clashes on the Lebanon–Syria border caused by the ongoing Syrian Civil War.
The Adra massacre was the killing of at least 32 Alawite, Christian, Druze and Ismailite civilians in the industrial town of Adra, Syria in December 2013, during the Syrian Civil War. According to the government and activists it was conducted by the al-Nusra Front. The U.S. State Department condemned the massacres in Syria including the massacre of civilians in Adra.
Following the outbreak of the protests of Syrian revolution during the Arab Spring in 2011 and the escalation of the ensuing conflict into a full-scale civil war by mid-2012, the Syrian Civil War became a theatre of proxy warfare between various regional powers such as Turkey and Iran. Spillover of the Syrian civil war into the wider region began when the Iraqi insurgent group known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) started intervening in the conflict in 2012.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian civil war from August to December 2014. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
The Deir ez-Zor offensive was executed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS, against all other opposition forces in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate as part of the Inter-rebel conflict during the Syrian Civil War.
The Battle of Idlib was a military operation in the Idlib Governorate, during the Syrian Civil War, conducted by rebels against Syrian government forces defending Idlib city.
The Army of Conquest or Jaish al-Fatah, abbreviated JaF, was a joint command center of Sunni Islamist Syrian rebel factions participating in the Syrian Civil War.
The Qalamoun offensive was an offensive led by the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah, supported by the Syrian Army, during the Syrian Civil War, against the al-Nusra Front and other Syrian opposition forces entrenched in the mountains of the Qalamoun region.
The Daraa and As-Suwayda offensive was launched in eastern Daraa Governorate during the Syrian Civil War, by the Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army and allied Islamic Front rebel group against government positions in and around the 52nd Mechanized Brigade base, which housed an infantry unit, an artillery battalion and a T-72 tank battalion. The offensive moved directly onto nearby al-Thula airbase in western As-Suwayda Governorate after the swift capture of Brigade 52. However, after initially managing to capture parts of the airbase, the rebels were forced to withdraw.
The Quneitra offensive was launched by Syrian rebel forces, during the Syrian Civil War, in order to capture the last government-held positions in Quneitra Governorate: Hader, Madinat al-Baath, Khan Arnabah and the strategic hill of Tell Krum. The other objective was connecting southern rebel-held parts of Syria with Western Ghouta.
Druze is the third-largest religion in Syria with 2010 results recording that their adherents made a 3.2 percent of the population. The Druze are concentrated in the rural, mountainous areas east and south of Damascus in the area known officially as Jabal al-Druze.
The following is a timeline of the Syrian Civil War from January to July 2015. Information about aggregated casualty counts is found at Casualties of the Syrian Civil War.
The Sultan Pasha al-Atrash Battalion was an armed Syrian rebel group affiliated with the Free Syrian Army that operated in southern Syria during the first 3 years of the Syrian Civil War. The group consisted of rebels from the Druze community in Syria, particularly in the Suwayda Governorate. The group disbanded in the beginning of 2014 after frequent attacks on it by Sunni Islamist groups, particularly al-Qaeda's al-Nusra Front.