Protesters in southern Syria smash statue as they mark 2015 assassination of anti-government leader

BEIRUT (AP) — Hundreds of angry protesters in southern Syrian have destroyed the statue of the country’s late president as they marked the 2015 assassination of a prominent anti-government Druze leader. The protests in the province of Sweida, where the Druze community represents the majority of the population, entered their third week on Monday. They were initially driven by surging inflation and the war-torn country’s spiraling economy but quickly shifted focus, with marchers calling for the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government. Sweida has largely stayed out of the fighting in Syria’s 12-year civil war, a conflict that has killed half a million people, wounded hundreds of thousands and left parts of the country destroyed.