More than a dozen people were killed in a predominantly Druze town near the Syrian capital on Tuesday in clashes sparked by a purported blasphemous recording of a Druze man which angered Sunni gunmen, rescuers and security sources said.
The clashes began overnight when gunmen from the nearby town of Maliha and other predominantly Sunni areas converged on the mostly Druze town of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, security sources said.
The fighting, with small and medium arms fire, left 13 people dead, according to local rescue workers. Among the dead were two members of Syria's General Security Service, a new security force comprised mostly of former rebels, according to interior ministry spokesperson Mustafa al-Abdo
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