Shortly earlier than Sunni Islamist-led rebels swept into the Syrian capital, Iran-backed guards fled their positions on the gates a revered Shiite shrine in a Damascus suburb.
By Wednesday, the few guests within the space solid apprehensive glances on the new guards of the Sayyida Zeinab shrine within the suburb of the identical identify, lengthy often known as a stronghold of pro-Iran fighters together with Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah.
“On Saturday night time, the Hezbollah fighters started to depart,” mentioned Walid Haji, 45, an armed insurgent posted to a checkpoint beforehand held by the Lebanese group.
Hezbollah fighters had been stationed throughout an unlimited perimeter of the shrine, and their properties had been typically focused by Israel because it engaged in fierce preventing with the group on its house soil in Lebanon.
Residents mentioned Iranians had diminished their presence within the area over the past three years.
Photos of slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli air strike on Beirut in September, have been torn down on the shrine’s entrance.
Rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched an offensive on November 27 that noticed them seize a string of main cities earlier than taking the capital on Sunday, declaring the tip of president Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
– Rebels ‘gave assurances’ –
Contained in the shrine, which usually welcomes Shiite pilgrims from throughout the area, a handful of tourists strolled via the huge, white marble courtyard.
Weeping girls had been clutching on the silver and gold mausoleum of Sayyida Zeinab, granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed from his son Ali, revered by Shiites as the primary imam.
“The shrine stays open and all workers have returned,” mentioned Dib Krayem, the director of the location. “Now we have held fruitful conferences with the brand new authorities, and so they have solely reassured us.”
“HTS officers got here to the shrine and gave assurances” over the problem of freedom of worship, he mentioned.
Assad is an adherent of the Alawite offshoot of Shiite Islam who projected himself as a champion of minorities.
His ouster by the Sunnis of HTS — proscribed as a terrorist group by Western authorities although it has just lately sought to melt its picture — has sparked fears amongst many over the safety of different spiritual minorities.
However in an interview on Wednesday, HTS-appointed Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir sought to guarantee that the brand new authorities would assure the rights of all spiritual teams.
Krayem mentioned the shrine welcomes “between 100,000 and 150,000 guests” throughout key Shiite holidays, nearly all of them coming from overseas.
– ‘Blood has been spilled’ –
But regardless of the assurances from Syria’s new authorities, there may be disquiet amongst many.
“Blood has been spilled,” mentioned one girl, who refused to offer her identify.
“We really feel oppressed. I hope that they will not forestall us from practising our spiritual rites,” she mentioned, her face etched with fear.
Sayyida Zeinab mayor Jamal Awad mentioned the suburb had welcomed “about 37,000 residents of Nabul and Zahra”, two Shiite villages close to Syria’s second metropolis of Aleppo within the north, who had fled the insurgent offensive.
“All of the residents of those villages, about 45,000 in whole,” had fled, he mentioned.
Syria’s small Shiite group, estimated at about 250,000 folks, fears being caught within the crosshairs of the brand new administration, and of being accused of associating with Iran-backed teams who helped prop up Assad’s rule.
Awad mentioned that a few quarter of the residents of Nabul and Zahra had begun returning to their villages after HTS’s assurances.
However for Ali, a resident of one of many villages who was visiting the shrine, “we got here right here looking for the safety of Sayyida Zeinab.”
