BEIRUT: An activist group and Syrian opposition faction say fighters of al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria have killed 20 members of the minority Druze sect in northwestern Syria.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Wednesday's shooting occurred after the Nusra Front tried to confiscate the home of a government official in the village of Qalb Lawzeh.
It said fighters shot a villager dead before another captured the rifle of a jihadi and opened, fire killing a Nusra Front fighter.
The Observatory said Thursday jihadis brought reinforcements and opened fire killing 20 residents.
The main Western-backed Syrian National Coalition said "dozens of Druze young men" were killed.
The Druze, a 10th century offshoot of Shiite Islam, made up about 5 percent of Syria's prewar population of 23 million people.