Syria troops quit Druze heartland province after deadly clashes
The pullout came after Islamist interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa's address.
Government troops who had pulled out of the province said the order to withdraw came shortly before midnight on Wednesday and they completed their pullout at dawn.
Syrian government forces have withdrawn from the whole of Sweida province after days of sectarian bloodshed in the heartland of the Druze minority, a war monitor and witnesses said Thursday.
The pullout came after Islamist interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in a televised address that "responsibility" for security in Sweida would be handed to religious elders and some local factions "based on the supreme national interest".
"The Syrian authorities have withdrawn their military forces from the city of Sweida and the the whole province, and Druze fighters have deployed" in their place, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
READ | Israel hits Lebanon, Syria as part of its campaign to 'strike every terrorist'
Government troops who had pulled out of the province told AFP that the order to withdraw came shortly before midnight on Wednesday and they completed their pullout at dawn.
"The city of Sweida seems devoid of any government forces presence," the editor in chief of the Suwayda 24 news website, Rayan Maarouf, told AFP.
Government forces had deployed to the city on Tuesday with the stated aim of overseeing a truce, following days of deadly clashes between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes.
But witnesses said government forces had instead joined the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians.
Neighbouring Israel responded with strikes on the Syrian military, including its headquarters in Damascus, which it warned would intensify until the Islamist-led government withdrew its forces from the south.
Israel, which is home to around 150 000 Druze citizens, has repeatedly stated its intention to defend the Druze of Syria in bouts of sectarian violence that have broken out since the Islamist now in power in Damascus toppled longtime leader Bashar al-Assad in December.
The Israeli military, which has taken control of the UN-monitored demilitarised zone on the Golan Heights and conducted hundreds of strikes on military targets in Syria, also says it will not allow any Syrian military presence on its border.
Despite having initiated contact, Israel remains extremely wary of Syria's new rulers, including Sharaa whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham movement was once linked to Al-Qaeda.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
12 hours ago
- Forbes
Using Force Against The Kurdish-Led SDF Will Imperil The New Syria
The U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces group has had a tough week. On July 31, Islamic State, IS or ISIS, militants attacked one of the group's checkpoints in the eastern Deir ez-Zor province, killing five of their troops. Furthermore, SDF fighters in the north clashed twice with government-affiliated forces in Aleppo province, specifically Manbij on Saturday and Deir Hafer early Monday. These incidents are reminders that the SDF remains the foremost force preventing any ISIS resurgence in Syria, and that attacks against it, intending to coerce it into folding under the new central government in Damascus, will only destabilize an already fragile state. Unsurprisingly, the SDF and government forces traded blame over who was responsible for these clashes. The Syrian defense ministry claimed the Manbij incident started after the SDF targeted army outposts with rocket fire, injuring four government troops and three civilians. The SDF counters that it was responding to 'unprovoked artillery assault targeting civilian-populated areas.' The SDF claimed Monday's incident started after government-affiliated fighters targeted four of its positions, resulting in 20 minutes of clashes. The group declared that Damascus bears complete responsibility for the attack and reaffirmed its right to respond to such provocations. The Kurdish-led group faced repeated attacks against its forces and Kurdish civilians in December as the former regime of Bashar al-Assad collapsed and early this year from militants operating under the banner of the Turkish-backed self-styled Syrian National Army. These militias repeatedly skirmished with the SDF along the Euphrates River until a ceasefire came into effect earlier this year. These same groups later carried out many of the grisly sectarian massacres of Alawite civilians along Syria's coastal Latakia province in March, which killed at least 1,479, mostly civilians, following attacks by remnants of the former Assad regime. Consequently, with many of these same militants operating within or alongside pro-government forces, it's hardly surprising that misunderstandings or continued lack of coordination, or government control over newly-integrated militias, could lead to clashes like these recent ones. Such clashes will no doubt complicate the new Syrian government's goal of absorbing the SDF into the new army. SDF leader Mazloum Abdi and Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa signed an integration agreement on Mar. 10, and the SDF has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to Syrian sovereignty, territorial integrity, and eventual integration of armed groups under state control. However, Damascus continually demands that the SDF disband and its troops join the new army as individuals. At the same time, the SDF insists it integrate into the new Syrian army as a bloc or in units. Then there's the July events in the southern city of Sweida, which saw the tribal fighters mobilized alongside government forces and intervening in local clashes between Druze and Bedouin forces. Sharaa attempted to use the clashes as an opportunity to assert complete government control over the Druze region but ended up incurring airstrikes from Israel, which had repeatedly warned it would militarily intervene if the Druze were threatened. The clashes killed hundreds, again, many of them civilians. It's possible the new Syrian government could use similar internal clashes in SDF-held regions in the future in an attempt to assert control. The SDF currently controls one-third of Syrian territory, including the Arab-majority provinces of Raqqa and Deir-ez-Zour in the east, much of it captured during its U.S.-backed war against the self-styled Islamic State caliphate. 'Activists from Raqqa (IS's former capital) and Deir ez-Zour have pressured Damascus to capture these majority Arab areas from the SDF, with the idea that the new regime could try to spark tribal revolts in SDF-held areas,' journalist Wladimir van Wilgenburg wrote in a recent analysis. He went on to note that several factors indicate 'that Damascus may exploit tribal groups to incite tribal revolts' in the SDF-held regions. 'The situation would be fundamentally similar to the Bedouin uprisings against the Druze and provide a pretext for the Syrian government to deploy its armed forces in SDF-held areas, as it did in Suwayda (Sweida),' Wilgenburg wrote. Of course, the SDF controls much larger swathes of Syria, and their rank-and-file battle-hardened from over a decade of confronting the Islamic State, a mission that continues until the present day. For example, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor states it has documented 140 Islamic State operations within SDF-controlled areas since the start of this year alone. In addition to securing overcrowded detention centers with captured ISIS militants, the SDF also serves as a bulwark protecting Iraq, which understandably worries that another security crisis in Syria could lead to ISIS or a similar group threatening its territory again. The SDF also remains a vital counter-terrorism ally of the United States in the region. Congressman Abe Hamadeh received 'a situation brief' from SDF leader Abdi on Sunday. In a post on X, he reiterated that, with its 100,000 Arab and Kurdish fighters, 'the SDF is a key part of Syria's future.' 'For over a decade, it has protected the northeast third of Syria, and established a decentralized model that protects Christians, Arabs, Kurds, and others,' he wrote. 'The SDF seeks time and space to strengthen their inclusive governance framework in Syria's interim process.' Hamadeh noted that U.S.-mediated Damascus-SDF negotiations, 'aimed at moving Syria away from the former regime's failed approach of intimidation and retaliation and toward a system grounded in protecting the rights and freedom for all,' are slated to resume this month in Paris. The SDF will no doubt disband when the time is right, and North and East Syria will revert to central government control. But the process will have to be an incremental one built on trust, which could take some time in light of the dismal events in Latakia and Sweida. Such events cannot be allowed to happen in these SDF-controlled regions since arguably so much more is at stake there. Nefarious actors like ISIS are the only ones that stand to benefit if Damascus resorts to threatening or using military force against the SDF. In the interim to an eventual agreement, the SDF will doubtlessly remain a force for stability in Northeast Syria, keeping a lid on any ISIS resurgence and the kind of instability that could plunge Syria into another civil war.
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
Syria's president has opened up a hornet's nest and it's tearing the country apart
For centuries an old, severed head helped hold Syria together. Pilgrims from across the Middle East journeyed to Damascus to venerate the skull buried beneath the storied eighth-century Umayyad mosque – a relic Christian and Muslims alike believe belongs to John the Baptist, beheaded to reward Salome for her sensuous dance before Herod Antipas. The site could scarcely be more apt for cross-community worship. Blending Corinthian columns, Byzantine mosaics and Islamic arches – in a building incorporating a Roman temple and a Christian church – few mosques anywhere are as inclusive. But harmony has been rare of late. In June, an Islamist gunman killed 25 worshippers at an Orthodox church in Damascus, opening fire before blowing himself up in the middle of a Sunday service. A month later, fighters from the new Syrian army stormed the home of Khalid Mezher, an evangelical pastor in southern Syria's Sweida region, murdering him, his parents, his siblings, their young children and even the family dog. Activists say the attackers were motivated less by Mr Mezher's religious beliefs than by sectarian animosity towards the Druze minority to which he belonged, hundreds of whom were slaughtered in clashes with Sunni Bedouin tribesmen. Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria's new president, dispatched troops to restore order, some of whom are accused of rounding up Druze and executing them. It is not the first time sectarian violence has shaken Syria since Mr Sharaa came to power nine months ago. In March, Sunni fighters descended on Syria's Mediterranean coast and massacred hundreds of Alawites, the minority sect of Bashar al-Assad, the dictator who was toppled in December. Euphoria initially greeted Assad's downfall, uniting communities. But minorities – Alawites, Christians, Druze, Kurds, Ismailis and Shias – now question whether a Syria dominated by its Sunni majority can hold together. To prevent disintegration, many say Mr Sharaa must shed his Jihadi past and become a national leader, rather than merely head of his own Sunni sect. 'After what happened in March, every Alawite is scared,' said Zaki, an IT technician in Tartous, an Alawite port city. 'We don't know when we will next be slaughtered — and we don't trust Sharaa to protect us. It feels like there's no place for Alawites in the new Syria.' Despite recent bloodbaths, Syria is no longer at war – for now. The Assad regime, which killed perhaps 200,000 civilians and tortured to death at least 15,000 more, is gone. The United States has led efforts to lift the sanctions that crippled Syria's economy. Saudi Arabia and Qatar have repaid its World Bank loans and pledged billions of pounds in investment. Turkey is helping rebuild the country. Minorities hold cabinet posts in the transitional government and an interim constitution promises inclusion. Yet as Syria comes under Sunni majority rule for the first time in half a century, sectarian tensions threaten these fragile gains. Many question whether a Sunni-dominated Syria can be both democratic and pluralistic, protecting, its minorities rather than subjugating them. The weight of history It may even be that the task facing Mr Sharaa is all but impossible, with some arguing that present-day Syria is doomed to failure by its Western imperial legacy that imprisoned the country within artificial borders, setting it up for failure from the outset. According to the romantic view, Greater Syria – encompassing present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories – enjoyed a golden era under the Ottoman Empire, with its sects protected by the Sultan. But in 1916, Britain and France secretly divided the empire's Arab lands under the Sykes-Picot Agreement, giving France modern Syria and Lebanon, and Britain Palestine and Transjordan. 'For minorities it was a zero-sum game,' says Joshua Landis, director of the centre for Middle East studies at the university of Oklahoma. 'New national borders were drawn around people who didn't want to live together. 'In Lebanon, it was the Maronite Christians who got the lion's share of power; in Syria, it was the Alawites who were elevated, allowing them later to take power at the expense of the Sunni majority who were brutally repressed.' Syrian nationalist Adib al-Shishakli, who seized power in 1949, complained that 'Syria is the current official name for that country which lies within the artificial frontiers drawn up by imperialism'. Between independence from France in 1946 and 1970, when Hafez al-Assad – Bashar's father – seized power, Syria was ruled by 16 presidents and experienced ten military coups. Many doubted it would survive as a nation-state. Stability came under Hafez and, initially, Bashar al-Assad, but at enormous cost. They imposed order through violent repression and sectarian manipulation, making minorities dependent on them and leaving most Syrians deeply divided, according to Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute, a think tank in Washington. 'This is the hornet's nest that has been opened up now that Assad is gone,' he says. 'After 14 years of debilitating conflict and a very fragile transition, distrust runs deep across every ethnic, sectarian and political line.' The sectarian volcano That distrust has already erupted. In March, Sunni fighters – enraged by years of minority privilege and Assad's wartime brutality – mobilised en masse after pro-Assad insurgents staged attacks on government forces. Up to 200,000 armed Sunnis joined in, many driving across the country after hearing calls to jihad issued in mosques. In some villages, they filmed themselves forcing their victims to bark like dogs before shooting them dead. Hundreds of thousands of Alawites fled through corpse-strewn streets and charred towns into Lebanon, which had mostly sheltered Sunni refugees during the war. More than 1,400 people were killed, according to government figures. Initially Mr Sharaa, once an affiliate of both Islamic State (IS) and al Qaeda, praised the fighters. But he reversed course, calling for peace, ordering an investigation and giving Alawites posts in his government. He has since won the support of Donald Trump, the US president, who praised Mr Sharaa's toughness and good looks before lifting sanctions on Syria under the prodding of Sunni Arab states in the Gulf. Calm was restored, but with Syria awash in weapons and vigilantes bent on revenge, low violence persisted and then exploded again in Druze areas last month. 'I don't think Sharaa or the government want these massacres,' says Aaron Zelin of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank. 'But because it can't control everybody that has a weapon, these crises spiral into far greater levels of violence.' The new army is also clearly unstable. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Mr Sharaa's former militia, has given it a disciplined core, despite its jihadi roots. But other ex-militias, nominally absorbed into the military, act almost autonomously, committing atrocities and defying orders. They spearheaded last month's bloodshed, executing 182 people, including women and children. Bedouin gunmen joined from across Syria, turning vigilante revenge into another sectarian massacre. Druze and Alawite fighters have also been accused of killing civilians. Syria thus simmers like a volcano: a vengeful Sunni majority, fearful minorities resentful over lost privileges and a weak state unable to restrain rogue elements bent on destroying the country's fraying cohesion. An interim constitution adopted in March meant to reassure minorities instead deepened mistrust by requiring the president to be Muslim and making Islamic Sharia the primary source of law – alarming communities deemed apostate by hard-line Sunnis. 'Sunnis are in power now – and many of those in power are real Salafists in the Jihadist tradition,' said Mr Landis. 'Some in the security services regard Druze, Ismailis and Alawites as pagans and therefore guilty of the worst crime in Islam. 'So there are really two Syrias today: the 70 per cent who are Sunni Arabs and the rest. Sunnis are optimistic; minorities are terrified.' The International Crisis Group, a conflict-monitoring think tank in Brussels, warned last month that minorities are increasingly arming themselves for self-defence, fearing government forces will not protect them. 'The violence deepened a sense of alienation and existential dread among many Syrians,' it wrote. 'If these patterns continue, social relations, the Syrian state's stability and the transition to a post-Assad political order will all be in jeopardy.' Regional crossfire Regional powers are adding to the upheaval. Israel has launched airstrikes on Syrian forces, destroying part of the defence ministry in Damascus last month after intervening on behalf of Druze communities. Israel's motives are partly domestic: its own Druze population serves in the Israeli armed forces under a 'blood covenant' with the Jewish state and has asked it to protect their kinsmen across the border. Credit: @AJEnglish/X But its involvement risks deepening sectarian tensions. Israeli troops have seized parts of southern Syria, violating a 1974 disengagement deal brokered by Henry Kissinger. One notable Druze leader, Hikmat al-Hijri, has openly sought Israeli protection, but others fear being branded traitors and sparking further reprisals. Israel has also courted Kurds in Syria's north-east. For now, the main Kurdish militia, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has struck a deal to integrate into the national army. Under pressure from Turkey, which recently ended a 40-year war with its own Kurdish rebels, the pact may hold. But spreading sectarian unrest threatens to unravel it, leaving Kurds – who, crucially, guard IS prison camps – wary of marginalisation in a Sunni-dominated Syria. 'There is a crisis of confidence brewing,' says a Kurdish official in the primarily SDF-held city of Qamishli. '[Sharaa] has to decide whether he wants to oppress or defend minorities. If he cannot defend all Syrians then Syria is heading for anarchy. It's his choice.' Can Syria hold? Syria's history has rarely been harmonious. Coups, dictatorship and civil war hardened sectarian lines. Yet the country has survived predicted collapse before – held together not by trust or unity, but by brute force. Analysts say Mr Sharaa faces a stark choice: continue that tradition by terrorising minorities into submission or attempt something no Syria leader has yet achieved – forging a genuinely inclusive national identity that transcends sect and ethnicity. Not everyone is convinced he will choose the latter. Mr Landis believes Mr Sharaa is more likely to subjugate minorities rather than share power with them. But others see reason for hope. 'Syria is going to be very unstable for years to come,' says Mr Lister of the Middle East Institute. 'But the ingredients to reunify the country are all in place. The transitional government is attempting to engage constructively with minority communities. 'Crucially, the US, the Europeans and the wider Middle East – except Israel – are united behind the idea that Syria's central government must control all its territory. That shared vision may be what holds the country together.' Whether Mr Sharaa can turn that vision into reality will decide more than Syria's borders. It will determine whether a country long defined by sectarian bloodshed can one day return to being the kind of place where Christians and Muslims kneel side by side before an ancient skull, believing, however improbably, that Syria belongs to all of them. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Solve the daily Crossword
18 hours ago
Fresh clashes break out in Syria as the interim government struggles to ease tensions
BEIRUT -- New outbreaks of violence overnight into Sunday rocked Syria at two distinct flashpoints, straining a fragile ceasefire and calling into question the ability of the transitional government to exert its authority across the whole country. In the north, government-affiliated fighters confronted Kurdish-led forces who control much of the region, while in the southern province of Sweida, they clashed with Druze armed groups. The outbreaks come at a time when Syria's interim authorities are trying to maintain a tense ceasefire in Sweida province after clashes with Druze factions last month, and to implement an agreement with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that would reintegrate large swaths of northeastern Syria with the rest of the country. The Syrian government under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has been struggling to consolidate control since he led a surprise insurgency that ousted former President Bashar Assad in December, ending the Assad family's decades-long autocratic rule. Political opponents and ethnic and religious minorities have been suspicious of Sharaa's de facto Islamist rule and cooperation with affiliated fighters that come from militant groups. State state television said clashes between government forces and militias belonging to the Druze religious minority rocked the southern province of Sweida on Saturday after Druze factions attacked Syrian security forces, killing at least one member. The state-run Alikhbaria channel cited an anonymous security official who said the ceasefire has been broken. The Defense Ministry has not issued any formal statement. Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said in addition to the member of the security forces killed, one Druze was killed and at least nine others were wounded in the clashes that took place in the in the western part of Sweida province. The Observatory said the clashes took place at the strategic Tal al-Hadeed heights that overlook Daraa province next door. State media says that aid convoys continue to enter Sweida city as a part of a tense truce after over a week of violent clashes in July between Druze militias and armed Bedouin clans backed by government forces. However, humanitarian conditions remain dire, and residents of Sweida have called for the road into the city to be fully opened, saying the aid that has come in is not enough. The clashes that displaced tens of thousands of people came after months of tensions between Damascus and Sweida. The fighting led to a series of targeted sectarian attacks against the Druze minority, who are now skeptical of peaceful coexistence. Druze militias retaliated against Bedouin communities who largely lived in western areas of Sweida province, displacing many to neighboring Daraa. Elsewhere, in the northern Aleppo province, government-affiliated fighters clashed with the SDF. The Defense Ministry said three civilians and four soldiers were wounded after the SDF launched a barrage of rockets near the city of Manbij 'in an irresponsible way and for unknown reasons." SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami on the other hand said the group was responding to shelling by 'undisciplined factions' within government forces on Deir Haffar, an eastern city in the same province. The eastern part of Aleppo province straddles areas controlled by the government and by the SDF. Though the two are slowly trying to implement a ceasefire and agreement that would integrate the areas under Damascus, tensions remain. 'The Ministry of Defense's attempts to distort facts and mislead public opinion do not contribute to security or stability,' Shami said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. In Quneitra province, in the south, the Israeli military announced it conducted another ground operation in the area that borders the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. It said its troops questioned several suspects they accuse of involvement in weapons trafficking in the village of Hader, and raided four areas where they found weapons being trafficked. Since Assad's ouster, Israel has conducted numerous strikes and military operations in southern Syria, saying its forces are taking out militant groups that they suspect could harm Israelis and residents in the Golan Heights. Damascus has been critical of Israel's military activity, and the two sides have been trying to reach a security arrangement through U.S.-mediated talks. Syria has repeatedly said it does not intend to take military action against Israel. Those talks intensified after Israel backed the Druze in Sweida during the earlier clashes. Israel struck military personnel near the southern city and most notably launched an airstrike targeting the Defense Ministry headquarters in the heart of Damascus.
