Syrian govt led by former ISIS terrorist Ahmed al-Sharaa unleashes brutal crackdown on Druze community: All you need to know about the Sweida violence
Syrian officials have faced allegations of conducting summary executions of civilians in the Druze-dominated Sweida. Damascus sent troops to the region after Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes clashed, which killed several people, including women and children. Afterwards, the country’s defence minister Murhaf Abu Qasra declared a ceasefire in the city on 15th July as government forces arrived in the morning.
The “notables and dignitaries” of the city had reached an agreement, he stated and added that government forces would “respond only to the sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw groups.” Nonetheless, altercations were witnessed as did complaints of human right breaches by security personnel.
The locals accused government troops and their allies of tearing through Druze neighbourhoods. They informed AFP that the development had little impact on the ground. The interior ministry also admitted that the conflicts persisted into the evening.
On the same day, the United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights unveiled that 21 members of the minority group had been killed in and around the region by Syrian government forces and their aides.
According to the war monitor, the violence which broke out since early 13th July already claimed the lives of at least 248 people, comprising 92 Druze and 28 of them were civilians. The observatory previously highlighted that forces from the “defence and interior ministries carried out field executions of 12 (19 per some reports) civilians after storming the Radwan family guest house in the city of Sweida.”
It further mentioned that armed groups associated with the government were also accountable for the shooting of three siblings in the presence of their mother in Sweida province. Rayan Maarouf, the editor-in-chief of the Suwayda 24 news website revealed that security forces had been involved in “savage practices.”
He pointed out that there have been instances of brutal murders of civilians and expressed, “dozens of them, yet we do not possess accurate figures.” Suwayda 24 further informed that more than 200 people had been injured. Social media posts featured videos of armed combatants abusing Druze prisoners and shaving their beards.
The agency disclosed that the defence ministry employees took part in “systematic acts of vandalism targeting civilian homes and property” and “stealing the contents of homes, smashing doors and windows, and then setting fire to some of them” among other acts of crimes. Men in military outfits were observed robbing and burning houses as well as liquor stores.
The government troops entered the city with Bedouin fighters and accompanied them in attacking the Druze, according to the observatory, Druze leaders and witnesses. Gunfire and dead bodies laying on empty streets were reported by an AFP correspondent who landed in Sweida soon after the forces.
“Catastrophic” is how one Suweida local described the situation, adding that indiscriminate firing has caused residents to “flee towards the countryside” in spite of a curfew imposed by Syrian authorities, reported BBC Arabic.
Concern among the Druze increased when Islamist groups connected with the Syrian government joined the conflict leading a prominent member of the community to demand “international protection.” The majority of Druze religious leader also announced that they were in favour of the government’s deployment following the Bedouin violence.
However, they later called for armed resistance as the unrest escalated and voiced, “We are being subject to a total war of extermination,” and urged the Druze population “to confront this barbaric campaign with all means available.”
The authorities have been ordered to “take immediate legal action against anyone proven to have committed a transgression or abuse, regardless of their rank or position,” according to a statement released by former Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) commander and current interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa.
Tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Bedouin tribes and Druze armed forces in the southern province sparked bloodshed two days after a Druze businessman was kidnapped on the highway to Damascus. This marked the first deployment of Syrian government forces to Suweida since the Islamist-led rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad in December.
Israel enters the conflict
Israel conveyed that after two days of deadly sectarian riots, it had targeted the government forces in the vicinity of Sweida as they moved into the largely Druze city. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintained that the government “intended to use (them) against the Druze.” Hence, he ordered strikes on forces and weapons in the area.
Israel with its own Druze population has promised to defend the members of the community who are living in Syria. It views any military deployment south of Damascus as a security hazard and has cautioned the Syrian government against the same. It vowed to continue the assault to protect the group.
On the other hand, the Syrian foreign ministry insisted that the strikes killed several civilians and members of the security forces, but failed to offer any exact numbers. The ministry denounced the Israeli attacks in a statement.
It termed them as “a reprehensible example of ongoing aggression and foreign interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states” and “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic.”
Israel, nevertheless, complied with the Trump administration’s request to stop its strikes. The United States even deployed tanks to the troubled area. According to the country’s Syria envoy Tom Barrack, the US is communicating with all parties “to navigate towards calm and integration.”
The recent camaraderie between Donald Trump and Ahmed al-Sharaa surprised many, as the former referred to the ex-Islamic terrorist as a “young, attractive and tough guy.” Washington even rescinded the $10 million bounty on his head and removed sanctions placed on Syria.
With the overthrow of Assad regime, the Jewish state has adopted a tough posture towards Syria’s new authorities, arguing it does not want terrorists along its borders. Israeli forces have executed hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian military targets and taken control of a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory near the Golan Heights border.
Who are the minority Druze community
The majority of the nearly one million members of the Druze Arab sect reside in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. The group which originated in Egypt in the eleventh century, is an offshoot of Ismailism, branch of Shia Islam that forbids marriages and conversions to or from the faith.
The Druze are mostly found in three major provinces in the southern part of Syria, near the Israeli-ruled Golan Heights. They primarily reside in the Sweida province and a few Damascus suburbs, especially in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya and Jaramana to the south.
The Golan Heights, a strategically located plateau that Israel annexed in 1981 after capturing it from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War is inhabited by around 20,000 Druze. There are about 25,000 Jews also staying in over 30 villages on the territory.
When Israel took over Golan, the majority of the Druze who identify as Syrian, turned down an offer of Israeli citizenship. Israeli residency cards were issued to those who declined although they are not regarded as the country’s citizens.
There is a Druze diaspora outside of the Middle East, especially in North America and Australia. Their population was expected to be over 700,000 until Syria’s civil conflict broke out in 2011. The Druze have been migrating to southern Syria since the 16th century, to what is now known as Jabal al-Druze or Druze Mountain in Sweida province, according to historian Sami Makarem’s book “The Druze Faith.”
During the ten-year civil war, the Druze who form the majority in the Suwayda region in southern Syria were pushed between the forces of the previous Assad administration and extremist organisations. Druze militias had retained a strong hold on Suweida, resisting appeals to join the security forces.
As the nation then took pride in its secular and Arab nationalist system, religious freedom was ensured under the strict control of the Assad family. Ahmed al-Sharaa also promised to safeguard them, however, his government is regarded with suspicion by them and other minorities.
The new 23-member Syrian cabinet unveiled in late March only featured one Druze member, Minister of Agriculture Amjad Badr, despite the transitional government’s commitment to incorporate minorities, including the Druze.
Earlier, many Druze citizens were slain including extrajudicially, as a result of sectarian warfare against their militias by Syrian transitional government armed forces and associated outfits that started on 28th April. Likewise, Christian and Alawite minority communities faced severe persecution few months after the new administration took charge.
Ahmed al-Sharaa’s ties to terrorism
The war name of Ahmed al-Sharaa was Abu Mohammad al-Jawlani. The United States classified him as a terrorist and the United Nations (UN) proscribed him. Over the past 20 years, he held significant positions in global terrorist organisations like Al Qaeda and ISIS. He was designated a global terrorist in 2013.
He collaborated closely with ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Al Qaeda’s Aiman al-Zawahiri. He was instructed by the former to start a local outfit to provide a front for Al Qaeda Iraq and Syria during the 2011 uprising against the Assad regime. The Al-Nusrah Front also called Jabhat al-Nusrah or Jabhat Fatah al-Sham was founded by him in 2012.
This UN-designated terrorist group was officially acknowledged as the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS became the new name for the Jabhat Fatah al-Sham in 2017. Its main objectives were to overthrow the Assad government and establish an Islamic Caliphate.
The group spearheaded a swift and widespread assault and seized areas which were under the Assad government. Afterward, retaliatory killings became rampant in Syria following Ahmed al-Sharaa’s takeover as his Sunni hardliner supporters and radicals targeted people from minority communities.
Therefore, while some Druze opposed Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorial government, they are also wary of Ahmed al-Sharaa, an Islamist leader with a history of perpetrating Islamic jihad. Reservations about some of their leaders being left out of his national discussion processes have been presented by them.
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