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Other armed factions loosely affiliated to the new authorities also became involved and carried out revenge killings against local Alawites.

“Sometimes, it’s two different factions, both as shady as the other,” he said.

Fighting between the Druze and government-aligned factions was triggered on Tuesday after an audio clip purportedly of a Druze cleric surfaced in which he insulted Prophet Mohammad.

Government forces and thousands of fighters — including from Sunni jihadist factions — beat back the loyalists but also hunted down Alawites, who share Assad’s religion and were seen by many Syrians as complicit in his policies.

Various ideological and generational factions are warring against each other and nobody seems to be winning.