“At least two people including a Druze fighter were killed in clashes between gunmen linked to the authorities and local Druze fighters” in Sahnaya, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, also reporting “14 wounded and missing”.

Sahnaya is around 15km southwest of the capital and is home to residents from Syria’s Druze and Christian minorities.

Local activist Samer Rafaa told AFP that “we didn’t sleep… right now mortar shells are falling on our homes”.

The violence came a day after sectarian fighting in Jaramana, a mainly Druze and Christian Damascus suburb southeast of the capital, and followed sectarian massacres last month in Syria’s Alawite coastal heartland.

The observatory said the Jaramana clashes, sparked by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze citizen and deemed blasphemous, killed 17, including eight Druze fighters and nine gunmen linked to the authorities.

Yesterday, Syria’s Islamist-led government promised Druze leaders to try those responsible for the violence in the Damascus suburb.

While seeking to present a more moderate image to the world, Syria’s new authorities must also contend with pressures from radical Islamists within their ranks.

The interior ministry had reported clashes “between groups of gunmen” in Jaramana, saying security forces deployed “to break up the clashes and protect the residents”.

Last month’s massacres on the Alawite-populated coast were the worst bloodshed in Syria since Islamist-led forces overthrew long-time president Bashar al-Assad in December.

The Assad family belongs to the Alawite community.