NEW YORK CITY: The UN’s special envoy for Syria condemned a spate of sectarian violence in Damascus as well as Israeli strikes on the capital as “unacceptable.”

It follows a week of killings and tensions in the predominantly Druze towns of Ashrafiyat Sahnaya and Jaramana, on the outskirts of Damascus.

Fighting broke out earlier this week in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya when gunmen attacked a security checkpoint.

A second clash occurred a day earlier in Jaramana, with at least 30 people, including civilians, being killed in the two attacks.

“The reports of civilian casualties, and casualties among security personnel, are deeply alarming,” Special Envoy Geir Pedersen said in a statement. “Immediate steps must be taken to protect civilians, de-escalate tensions and prevent any further incitement of communal conflict,” he added.

Syrian security forces intervened in an attempt to quell tensions, closing off roads and sending armed personnel, the interior ministry said.

Tensions were compounded by Israel’s intervention with a series of strikes on the outskirts of Damascus.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces had launched attacks on an “extremist group that was preparing to attack the Druze population south of Damascus.”

A second Israeli strike in the Damascus countryside killed a Syrian security officer.

Maj. Gen Eyal Zamir, Israel’s chief of staff, threatened to carry out strikes on Syrian government sites “if the violence against the Druze does not stop.”

Pedersen condemned the Israeli attacks and said that “Syria’s sovereignty must be fully respected.”

He called on Syrian parties to engage in “genuine inclusion, trust-building and meaningful dialogue” in a bid to reduce tensions.

The condemnation came a week after Pedersen’s appearance before the UN Security Council alongside Asaad Al-Shaibani, Syria’s foreign minister.

There, Pedersen hailed the “opening of a new chapter in Syria’s history” and praised the Syrian people, “who, amidst continued suffering, and many uncertainties and dangers, show overwhelmingly that they want this political transition to succeed.”

The events in Damascus follow months of sectarian violence around Latakia and the Syrian coast, involving clashes between members of the Alawite minority and other groups.

“The people of Syria have suffered too much for too long,” Pedersen said. “They deserve peace, dignity, and a future built on dialogue, not destruction.”

ISTNABUL: Police arrested more than 400 people in Istanbul on Thursday, with parts of Turkiye’s biggest city paralyzed in a bid to prevent May Day demonstrations, a lawyers group said.
On Wednesday city authorities closed metro, bus and ferry services in the metropolis and arrested 100 people who were allegedly planning to protest in the city’s central Taksim Square, where demonstrations have been banned since 2013.
This year’s May Day comes as the government is embroiled in a showdown with the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CPH), following the detention of its presidential candidate Ekrem Imamoglu.
Imamoglu, who is Istanbul’s mayor, is the biggest political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“The number of arrests that have been reported to us exceeds 400,” the Istanbul branch of the CHD lawyers group wrote on X on Thursday.
There was no immediate comment on the detentions from city authorities.
AFP journalists witnessed several dozen people arrested in neighborhoods on the European side of the city.
Several thousand people assembled in sanctioned protests called by labor unions on the Asian side of the city, according to local media and an AFP journalist.
On Wednesday, rights group Amnesty International urged Turkiye to lift the ban on demonstrations in Taksim.
“The restrictions on May Day celebrations in Taksim Square are based on entirely spurious security and public order grounds and... must be urgently lifted,” said Dinushika Dissanayake, an Amnesty’s specialist on Europe.
As happens every year, the square has been sealed off with metal barriers for several days, with a heavy police presence.