BEIRUT — Militants linked to al-Qaeda have shot dead at least 20 members of Syria’s minority Druze community during a standoff at a village in a northwestern province, according to monitoring and opposition groups.
The incident, which the groups said happened Wednesday, highlights the threat to Syria’s many religious minorities from the extremist factions such as al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate, known as Jabhat al-Nusra, that are seizing significant territory from President Bashar al-Assad.
Meanwhile, a coalition of more moderate rebel groups known as the Southern Front launched a major assault Thursday on a military airfield in the south. The attack on the Thaala air base comes two days after the coalition overran a nearby army base defended by forces loyal to the Assad government, which has lost significant territory recently to the Southern Front as well as to extremists such as Jabhat al-Nusra in the northwest and the Islamic State in the east.