BEIRUT: A spate of killings in the central Syrian city of Homs is fuelling fears the popular uprising in the country could descend into a version of the sectarian strife that has long destabilised neighbouring Iraq and Lebanon.
The violence erupted at the weekend as attention was focused on the overwhelmingly peaceful anti-government demonstrations staged in many other cities around the country, including Damascus.
Sectarian tensions flared between the majority Sunni residents of Homs, who constitute the bulk of the protest movement in the majority Sunni country, and the minority Alawites, the Shiite sect to which the President, Bashar al-Assad, and most members of his regime belong.
Witnesses on both sides of the divide and a medical worker who tracked the violence and collected the bodies said the tensions soared after a crowd of Alawites armed with sticks surrounded a mosque in a Sunni neighbourhood shortly before the midday prayers on Friday and began chanting anti-Sunni slogans.
Sunnis responded by abducting three Alawites and their bullet-ridden bodies were found dumped in a Sunni neighbourhood of the city on Saturday. Alawites went on a rampage, looting and burning Sunni shops.
In the melee, at least three Sunnis were killed, including a 27-year-old woman who was shot when she stepped outside her home in a majority Alawite neighbourhood.
One activist said six Sunnis were killed, bringing the total number of deaths in the tit-for-tat killings to nine, though the medical worker who saw the bodies could only confirm a total of six.
Residents described a city gripped by fear, with most shops closed, bursts of unexplained gunfire and Sunni and Alawite residents fleeing those areas in which they found themselves in the minority.
''It's on the edge of civil war,'' said a Christian businessman who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for his safety.
He said he originally supported the protest movement but now backed the government after witnessing incidents of sectarianism that made him fearful for the future of the country's religious minorities.
A democracy activist in Homs, who also did not want to be named for fear of repercussions, said Sunni opponents of the government were just as scared.
''The atmosphere in the city of Homs is horrible,'' he said. ''People are afraid of genocide and we pray the night passes without us being killed.''
The Washington Post