BEIRUT: A memorial was held in Aley Sunday for a Syrian Druze rebel killed in a battle against regime troops.

Speaking during the ceremony, Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Naim Hasan warned members of the community in Syria of the dangers of sectarian strife.

“We raise our voice to warn our people against being dragged into sectarian strife and to anticipate ... the dangers of what is happening in their country,” he said.

Last week, the Facebook page of the Revolutionary Military Council for Swaida announced the death of Khaldoun Zeineddine, who defected from the Syrian army to form a Free Syrian Army battalion in the predominantly Druze southern province of Hawran.

The council thanked Hasan and Lebanese Druze Sunday for holding the memorial. MPs and officials from the Progressive Socialist Party were on hand.

PSP MP Akram Shehayeb called Zeineddine a hero who opposed the Syrian regime’s crackdown on its own people. “He opposed that the army which he joined becomes a tool to oppress its people and a toy in the hands of a family strangling free Syria.”