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35,000 Shi'ite Civilians Trapped in Surrounded Villages
by Jason Ditz, October 18, 2012
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Underscoring the increasingly sectarian nature of the Syrian Civil War, we get news today of the villages of Zahraa and Nubl, two Shiite dominated villages in the Aleppo region, both of which are completely surrounded by Sunni rebels.
An estimated 35,000 villagers are trapped in the villages with no chance of escape, with rebel snipers gunning down anyone who tries to leave. The rebels claim that the villages were housing pro-regime gunmen.
In theory Syria is a secular state, but with the leadership mostly made up of Shiites, the rebels have attracted a following of foreign Sunni Islamist factions, and some regional Shiites have flocked to Syria to fight against them.
What this means in the long run for Syria remains to be seen, but years of bloody violence in religiously split Iraq eventually forced minorities out of integrated districts and left the nation a patchwork of refugees on both sides. In the long run, sectarian tensions may also mean Shiite villages in a Sunni dominated portion of Syria are no longer sustainable.
Syria’s Sunni Rebels Besiege Shi’ite Villages -- News from Antiwar.com