Druze, Syria and Israel
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The White House is attributing the outbreak of violence in the Middle East between the Syrian government and Israel to a "misunderstanding" over ethnic grudges.
An AFP photographer counted 15 bodies on the street in the centre of Sweida today after government forces pulled out. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said more than 370 people have been killed in sectarian clashes in the city since Sunday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said the clashes started after members of a Bedouin tribe in Sweida province set up a checkpoint where they attacked and robbed a Druze man, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings between the tribes and Druze armed groups.
"Silence and standing idly by are no longer an option,” Druze leader Sheikh Mowafak Tarif wrote. Israel's Druze spiritual leadership called on its community to prepare to assist their Syrian counterparts “by all means necessary,
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