Militants of the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhet Al-Nusra has killed on Wednesday more than 22 of the Druze minority in Qalb Lawzeh village situated in the southern outskirts of Iblib province near the Turkish borders.
The incident spiraled when Al-Nusra members tried to confiscate a house belongs to a Druze villager who fights with the Syrian Army.
The Druze faith is an offshoot of Islam but viewed as ‘heretical’ by the radical Sunnisim espoused by Al-Nusra Front and other hadline actions.
The small village is home of tens of families who fled the recent battles that raged in the area between western-backed militants and government troops.
The victims include 2 clerics, women and 5 family members.
At earlier time, Al-Nusra militants exhumed historic graves and demolished sacred shrines in the village.
Al-Nusra Front, an offshoot of the terror group Al-Qaeda, is leading an ‘alliance of forces’ under the name of Jaysh Al-Fateh (Army of the Conquest), that took over large swathes of Idlib governorate in their latest push against the Syrian Army, including Jis Al-Shogjour and Al-Qarmeed Camp among others.
The radical Islamic rebels have been systematically exterminating religious minorities across Syria. In late April, the newly-formed Jaysh Al-Fateh slaughtered nearly 200 people in the Alawite-populated village of Eshtabraq, mostly women and children. Christians, Yazidis and Assyrians have been also victimized by the radical fighters.
