Sectarian Clashes Erupt in Syria, Killing 12

Deadly clashes fueled by sectarian tensions erupted on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, killing at least 12 people, Syrian officials and a war monitoring group said on Tuesday.

The fighting began overnight from Monday to Tuesday in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, which has a large population from the minority Druse sect. It came after an audio clip circulated on social media of a man insulting the Prophet Muhammad. The clip was attributed to a Druse cleric.

The cleric and Druse religious figures in Jaramana denied the accusation. The Syrian Interior Ministry said that its initial findings showed that the cleric was not responsible and appealed for calm.

As public anger over the clip grew, unidentified fighters in armored vehicles amassed overnight outside Jaramana and began shelling the city, setting off heavy gun battles, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war-monitoring group based in Britain.

It was the latest wave of sectarian violence to hit Syria since Islamist rebels overthrew the dictator Bashar al-Assad in December, stoking fears among the country’s many minority groups that those rebels — who now control the government and military — will marginalize or even target them.

The audio clip also set off demonstrations in a number of other cities, with some of the protesters inciting violence against the Druse, according to the Observatory.