logo
How a roadside robbery triggered an unexpected new Middle East war

How a roadside robbery triggered an unexpected new Middle East war

Telegraph16-07-2025
Vegetable seller Fadlallah Dawara was on his way home on Sunday night when his truck was hijacked by a group of armed men.
Mr Dawara was pulled out of his car, beaten, and abandoned – blindfolded – on the side of the road.
Attackers confiscated seven million Syrian pounds (about £400), his phone and absconded with his truck, vegetables and all.
That account, given to media in Suwayda, a south-western city in Syria, is what sparked tit-for-tat kidnappings in retaliation, which then swelled into deadly clashes between local rival militias.
By Monday, the Syrian government had sent its forces into the surrounding countryside in an attempt to restore order. Israel, worried about a foreign military build-up near its territory, sent fighter jets to attack the Syrian tanks.
The next two days would see tensions rising to a fever pitch as Syrian government forces advanced deeper into Suwayda. The Israeli military stepped up its strikes, bombing around the city, and also in Damascus, the capital of Syria – including the ministry of defence, pictured below.
A first ceasefire fell apart within hours; it remains to be seen if a second one, agreed Thursday, will hold. Some estimates put the death toll at around 300 people, though true figures remain unclear given an internet and electricity blackout in Suwayda.
This latest spate of intense, deadly violence appears to be the most significant threat facing the ability of Syria's new government to consolidate control over the richly diverse country after a surprise rebel offensive toppled longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad last December.
Syria's new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the rebel coalition that toppled Assad, and others he installed at the top of the government are primarily Sunni Muslim, prompting worries of discrimination and violence amongst the country's many religious and ethnic minorities.
Those concerns only deepened in March, when sectarian killings swept through the Alawite religious minority, a sect to which the former leader Assad belongs. One estimate put the full death count at 1,500 Syrian Alwites massacred, according to Reuters.
Fears that revenge killings would continue have lingered, and many remain terrified that the new guard – despite noises to the contrary – will eventually revert to the dark, deadly, authoritarian ways of the old guard.
'The attacks are very similar to the previous regime's methodology where they would completely decimate civilian areas to make an example to anyone who wishes to stand up in the face of the government's tyranny,' said Abu Jawad, 29, a member of the Druze minority in Syria, whose name has been changed for fear of retribution.
He accused the Syrian government of covering up its violent actions, which range from 'looting, beating, and dehumanising civilians all the way to rape and civilian executions.'
Mr Dawara, the vegetable seller robbed, setting off the violent events of the last four days, is also Druze, an Arab sect of about one million people who primarily live in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
Sectarian violence that in recent days swept Suwayda, a stronghold of the Druze community, was primarily between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes that took revenge, first in response to the attack against Mr Dawara.
A few videos, some unverified, began emerging online, showing men in military attire forcibly shaving off the moustaches of Druze men – a serious, provocative attack as they are considered an important cultural and religious symbol for the sect.
In one, an elderly cleric – now identified as Sheikh Merhej Shahin, 80 – is seen, in front of his home as a man in military gear shaves off his moustache.
The video started circulating online on Tuesday, and his family lost touch with him for a few hours after, with calls to his phone unanswered. Finally, after hours, someone picked up.
'My aunt repeatedly tried to call him, and at around 8pm, someone answered her call and mockingly told her he met his end,' Christine Shahin, the late sheikh's granddaughter, said.
When Syrian government forces started advancing, his family begged him to leave, but he insisted on staying to bury his grandson, who had been killed a day earlier by sniper fire.
Local Druze fighters, suspicious of Mr al-Sharaa's pledge to protect all Syrians, have clashed against Syrian government forces, ambushing and executing some, while taking others hostage, as experts have noted based on various videos emerging online.
Concern that the violence could spiral out of concern prompted Hikmat al-Hijri, one of the three most senior Druze spiritual leaders in Syria, to issue an unprecedented statement, directly calling the leaders of the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan to take a stand against such persecution.
'Save Suwayda,' he wrote in a statement. 'For our people are being exterminated and being killed in cold blood, with the killer not distinguishing between young and old, woman or child, doctor or sheikh, and they are destroying churches and houses of worship.
'These are massacres being committed before the world's eyes and the silence continues to kill,' he wrote. 'We call on the international community to bear its humanitarian and ethical responsibilities to stop these systematic and organised massacres.'
Mr al-Hijri's stance doesn't represent the views of all Druze, as many want nothing to do with Israel, instead believing that Israel is exploiting instability in Syria to advance its own domestic security interests, rather than doing so on behalf of the Druze as the military claims.
'Israel has been bombing long before any of the [latest] aggression toward the Druze sect even began,' said Abu Jawad.
'The Israelis are using this false claim of 'protecting the Druze' to further the divide between the people of Syria and the Druze community…we never asked for our country to be attacked by foreign occupation aggressors.'
Either way, the violence underscores some of the biggest challenges the Syrian government still needs to contend with: how to handle aggression from neighbouring Israel, and how best to agree a security arrangement in minority areas, like Suwayda, where locals would rather have members of their own communities, rather than government fighters, installed to maintain order going forward.
As night fell on Thursday, Syrians with friends and family in Suwayda were waiting desperately for any news of their loved ones – hard to come by, as communications largely remained down.
Nearing 9pm, video surfaced online showing piles of dead bodies in the corridors and beds of a hospital in the city – a massacre that had purportedly taken place earlier, and a reminder that the bloodshed was perhaps far from over.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Mother of murdered schoolboy fears she may ‘never recover' from son's loss
Mother of murdered schoolboy fears she may ‘never recover' from son's loss

The Independent

time34 minutes ago

  • The Independent

Mother of murdered schoolboy fears she may ‘never recover' from son's loss

The mother of a teenager who was stabbed to death on a bus emotionally told a court she may 'never recover' from the loss of her son. Aspiring rapper Kelyan Bokassa called, 'I want my mum' after he was mortally wounded in front of horrified passengers aboard a route 472 bus in Woolwich, south-east London, on 7 January. He was stabbed around 27 times in the attack that lasted around 14 seconds. Two youths, aged 16, appeared at the Old Bailey to be sentenced on Friday after they pleaded guilty to Kelyan's murder and having a knife. In a moving victim impact statement, Kelyan's mother Marie Bokassa said: 'I stand here not just as a mother but as a broken soul whose life changed forever the day my child's life was taken from me by another child.' Speaking through tears and wearing black, she added: 'At least my son is at peace, and those two kids are going to have a really tough time. 'I ask myself what has happened to those two boys that has resulted in that terrible act of violence and I cannot imagine how can they be so angry. 'What they did was horrific and I do not know what has led them to do this and maybe I will never.' 'That moment of violence may have lasted seconds but its consequences are eternal,' Ms Bokassa said. She told the court her son had loved food, cooking and football and brought her flowers on her birthday. 'He would put music on and we'd dance together in the living room,' she said. 'He loved Mr Bean, which we watched together, and he would laugh. I miss his laugh, miss his voice. 'I will never see his children or be a grandmother and he will never have his own family.' Ms Bokassa added that she had spent her son's 15th birthday at his graveside and that she missed everything about him. She said that some people in her neighbourhood cannot look at her and she is petrified to take public transport, particularly the 472 bus. 'I feel judged,' Ms Bokassa added. 'Maybe I will never recover, all I know is I will live and I will have to be strong for my son and I will have to constantly find a coping mechanism,' she continued. 'He would want me to try and solve youth crime and not give up on my life. 'My son loved me and would want me to go on with my life. 'These two young boys took my son's life without hesitation, they will now have to face the consequences of their actions here today. 'My only hope is they get the help they need before they ever get released into society.' In a statement, Kelyan's father, Hashim Mohamed, said his son's death had prompted him and his wife to consider 'youth violence' and to 'think politically' about knife crime. 'I never expected Kelyan's life to end tragically, to the contrary I believed he would one day thrive as an elite athlete or even as a creative,' he wrote in a statement read out on his behalf by prosecutor Deanna Heer KC. The hearing was attended by around 20 members of the public, who filled the public gallery, all of whom wore black while some hid their faces and sobbed loudly as CCTV footage of the attack was shown to the court. Kelyan's mother left the hearing briefly while the video of her son's murder was played.

Teenager with ‘unhealthy interest' in knives guilty of 18-year-old's murder
Teenager with ‘unhealthy interest' in knives guilty of 18-year-old's murder

The Independent

time2 hours ago

  • The Independent

Teenager with ‘unhealthy interest' in knives guilty of 18-year-old's murder

A balaclava-clad teenager who had an 'unhealthy interest' in knives, and grinned before fatally stabbing an 18-year-old man through the heart with a Rambo-style knife, has been found guilty of murder. Charles Hartle, who was 17 at the time, carried out the 'utterly pointless killing' when he attacked Noah Smedley on a dark street in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, on the evening of December 28 last year, with the knife he kept hidden in his tracksuit bottoms. Hartle, of Station Road, Stanley, was found guilty of murdering Mr Smedley on Friday, after a two-week trial at Derby Crown Court, Derbyshire Police said. Prosecution counsel Adrian Langdale KC said that as Hartle moved towards Mr Smedley, he 'grinned or smiled before deliberately aiming for and stabbing him in the chest'. The court was told that Hartle and his friends had arranged to meet Mr Smedley, who arrived at the scene on an electric scooter and sold them cannabis. Mr Langdale said the defendant regularly carried a Rambo-style knife for 'the kudos and bravado' and to show others he was a 'big man'. Derbyshire Police said Hartle, who liked to go by the nickname Lil Cee, went to meet his girlfriend at a house party after stabbing Mr Smedley in the heart. Witnesses at the party reportedly saw him confess to her what he had done and produce the knife, which has never been recovered. Hartle then travelled to Derby city centre to distance himself from the scene, where Mr Smedley had been found by members of the public at about 8.20pm. He was pronounced dead just before 9pm. In the hours after the murder, Hartle disposed of his clothing, the knife, and his phone, before eventually handing himself in at Ilkeston police station. In a prepared statement given to police, Hartle said he accepted inflicting the injury on Mr Smedley but felt he had acted in self-defence. He said: 'There is a history to this, and Noah and I did not get on. He has, in the past, made numerous threats to me and made disparaging comments. He has threatened me with violence. 'I was petrified that he was about to lunge at me. In that split second, I instinctively lashed out with the knife I had, in self-defence.' Detective Constable Emma Barnes-Marriott, of Derbyshire Police, said: 'Noah was an unarmed teenager, who was simply meeting with friends on the night Charles Hartle decided to end his life. 'Noah did not threaten Hartle and showed nothing but friendliness towards him that evening, and yet he was brutally murdered. 'Charles Hartle is a callous and calculating young man, who has shown no recognition or remorse for taking another teenager's life. 'He carried a knife with the intention to use it, over what appears to be a petty disagreement that only he was aware of, and a sense of bravado. 'I'd like to thank Noah's family for their support during our investigation and the trial. 'No family should have to go through the ordeal of losing a loved one, especially at such a young age, and to have to relive their last moments at trial is an additional blow that Hartle could have spared them from. 'Instead, despite overwhelming evidence, he remained silent and refused to take responsibility for Noah's murder. 'I know that nothing will bring Noah back but hope that today's verdict has provided his family with some comfort that justice has been done.' Hartle will be sentenced at Derby Crown Court on August 22.

Major Jonathan Creak jailed for attempted murder of ex-wife
Major Jonathan Creak jailed for attempted murder of ex-wife

BBC News

time2 hours ago

  • BBC News

Major Jonathan Creak jailed for attempted murder of ex-wife

A former Army major who tried to kill his ex-wife by slashing her with a blade has been jailed for 25 Creak was discovered with serious wounds to her neck, breast and torso, at Hardwick, Norfolk, on 6 July last Creak, 51, of Woodstock, Oxfordshire, had previously admitted causing grievous bodily harm and possession of a knife in a public place and in April was found guilty of attempted Creak at Norwich Crown Court, Judge Katharine Moore said: "That behaviour is, frankly, terrifying." Creak was found guilty of attempted murder after the court heard he drove more than 100 miles (160km) from his home to attack Ms court had been told he had followed her as she went to muck out a friend's heard Creak, of Westland Way, produced a Stanley knife from his pocket and his victim said she heard him shouting that she needed to die. Claire Matthews, prosecuting, said Creak was "familiar with the weapon and its capabilities". She said "the violence was so carefully planned... and the long-lasting harm so great," that there was an ongoing risk to the public. In mitigation, defence lawyer Daniel Higgins said Creak had been in work clothes that he wore while renovating his house, and there was no judge acknowledged that Creak "served [his] country", had "put others before himself" and "does demonstrate remorse". "He is someone that is keen to rehabilitate," she she described him as "dangerous" and said he was "driven by anger and resentment".She said he continued "to pose a high threat to Rhiannon" and posed "a risk to members of the public, especially women". His sentence will include an additional four years on licence, alongside a lifetime restraining order. Ms Creak has called for more support for people who face "aggressive" told the BBC how Creak had laughed as he chased her and started "slashing" at her injuries included nerve damage, meaning she cannot fully use her right arm."I have PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and horrible flashbacks and terrible nightmares, and I haven't really slept more than a few hours a day since," she was married to Creak for 10 years, and described their relationship as "confusing"."There were some very lovely moments, but also some really quite aggressive times," she couple split up in 2018, but did not divorce until 2022. Ms Creak said that during the relationship, Creak never physically attacked her, but would react angrily to "benign incidents.""Small actions would turn into quite aggressive moments. Everything just felt very disproportional," she said. Det Insp Duncan Woodhams said: "This has been a terrifying ordeal for Rhiannon and her family. It has had a profound impact on her physical and psychological wellbeing."Nothing will ever erase the experience for Rhiannon, but we hope that the sentence today ensures her perpetrator will have to serve some justice for his unthinkable actions." If you are affected by any of the issues in this story, details of help and support are available at BBC Action Line Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store