Minorities form vigilante groups in Damascus

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Minorities form vigilante groups in Damascus

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Residents of minority areas say groups are backed by security forces against terrorists.

07 September,2012 10:58 pm

For months, most of Syrias minority sects stood warily on the sidelines of the revolt by the Sunni Muslim majority against President Bashar al-Assads Alawite-dominated rule.But in Damascus, neighbourhood vigilante groups are arming themselves in Christian, Druze and Shiite Muslim areas, throwing up sectarian borders across Syrias capital in alliance with Assads forces.We protect our area from terrorists. We check all the cars coming in, and anyone were suspicious of, says Sameer, 32, one of four men with rifles sipping tea under a stone archway in the Christian quarter of the historic old city.By terrorists Sameer, a cab driver with the Virgin Mary and a cross tattooed on his arms, means the mostly Sunni rebels who have fallen back to an arc of suburbs on the eastern outskirts after fierce battles with Assads forces in July.Residents fear that far from protecting them, the self-styled popular committees have merely made them targets.Its not a matter of whether they become militias. They are militias already, said a 20-year-old who lives in the old city.Unwilling to be identified, he pointed to the scowling young men gathered around the candy and newspaper stands that dot almost every alley and street corner.Residents say they are secret outposts for the committees - lijan shaabiya in Arabic, called lijan for short.Larger checkpoints manned by young gunmen, sometimes teenagers, stand outside most districts home to minority sects, which had earlier been reluctant to offer more than tacit acceptance of Assads rule.Security forces are arming the minorities, said the young resident. They are preparing for a sectarian war.