Six personnel of the Syrian government security forces were killed Saturday when violent protests broke out in Al Suwaidaa province, chief of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) Ramy Abdul Rahamn told MENA.

The protests broke out in the stronghold of Syria's Druze minority after Druze leader Sheikh Wahid al -Balous and three other persons died in two car bomb blasts overnight, he added.

After the attacks, dozens of Druze citizens protested outside government buildings in Suwaidaa, storming military police buildings, setting cars alight and destroying a statue in the town of former president Hafez al Assad, father of President Bashar al Assad, the SOHR chief said.

He added that the government forces withdrew into security headquarters.

Balous, a cleric of the Druze minority sect, was a prominent critic of President Bashar Assad, Daesh and other Islamic extremist militants.
Source: MENA