[2] However, the Popular Committees included a significant number of pro-regime Sunni Muslims as well.

[2] Reuters quoted a Druze resident of Jaramana: "[The government] say the Lijans help us protect ourselves, but really they just wanted to light the sectarian fuse in Damascus".

[3] Tony Badran of Now Lebanon commented: "Assad seeks to assemble the minorities around him in order to present himself as the sole and unavoidable interlocutor on behalf of these segments of Syrian society, where he has cultivated loyal patches".

[5] In Aleppo, some residents claimed that the Syrian Army organized a Christian militia during fighting there in August 2012.

[7] The day after a bombing killed four government officials, including the Greek Orthodox Christian Syrian Minister of Defence, General Dawoud Rajiha, it was reported by residents that at least 200 AK-47s were handed out in a Christian neighborhood of Damascus.