A war monitor and an activist group say clashes broke out in the Syrian capital between local gunmen belonging to the minority Druze sect and pro-government fighters.

More than a dozen people were killed in a predominantly Druze town near the Syrian capital on Tuesday in clashes sparked by a purported recording of a Druze man cursing the Prophet Mohammad which angered Sunni gunmen,

In her home in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, Riham Waqqaf spent the night trying to distract her children from the sound of sectarian clashes that have terrified local residents."The gunfire didn't stop throughout the night and intensified at dawn,