Earlier on Wednesday Israel’s military said it had carried out a strike on the outskirts of the Syrian capital saying it was targeting an “extremist group” that had attacked the Druze community, a religious minority in the country. In a joint statement on Wednesday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the operation in the town of Sahnaya, southwest of Damascus, was a “warning action” against an unidentified armed group “preparing to continue attacking the Druze population. Syria’s foreign ministry reacted saying it had an “unwavering commitment” to protecting all Syrian people, including the “honorable Druze community.”

According to Syria’s state news agency SANA, government forces launched a wide-scale operation in the area surrounding Sahnaya to arrest “outlawed gangs” after an unidentified armed group attacked a Syrian government checkpoint late Tuesday, wounding three officers. On Thursday, top Syrian Druze leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri called for the “immediate intervention” of international peacekeeping forces “for the swift protection of an innocent, defenseless population.” He described the violence against his community as a “campaign of extermination” carried by what he described as Syrian government “affiliated extremist gangs”. Without referring to Hijri’s statement, Syria’s foreign ministry immediately rejected calls for foreign interference. Any call for foreign intervention  under any pretext or slogan  only leads to further deterioration and division,” the ministry said in a statement. (CNN)