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The National
a day ago
- Politics
- The National
Syria's Druze count the toll of another deadly episode in long struggle for survival
The once invincible Sweida in southern Syria, the epicentre of a revolt against French colonial rule, was counting its dead on Monday after a week of fighting that left its mostly Druze inhabitants bowed, but not defeated. A ceasefire appeared to hold as Monday was the first day without clashes in a week. Authorities were moving Bedouin civilians out, but aid convoys were still to enter. Local branches of the Health Ministry sent teams to count the dead and take bodies to hospitals, where mortuaries were full after three waves of incursions by government forces and auxiliaries in the past week. Last year, Sweida was a centre of a non-violent uprising against the Assad regime when peaceful protest in Syria had long been crushed. The Druze are an offshoot of Islam, whose history is defined by struggles for survival. US diplomatic pressure on Syrian authorities, and Israeli raids, halted the offensive on Sunday. However the area, comprising the heartland of the ancient sect, remains under siege by the central authorities. Damascus said Druze militias killed hundreds of Sunnis in Sweida during the clashes in the provincial capital, which were sparked by sectarian abductions. Khaldoun, a Druze surgeon at the main Sweida National Hospital, told The National Syrian military and Interior Ministry forces who arrived in the city last week 'supposedly to stop clashes and spread security, turned out to be monsters.' Women were among dead, felled by snipers and other government triggermen. Dr Khaldoun said 'medical teams were shot dead while trying to save people.' He said at least the bodies of 500 people have been brought to the hospital or died while receiving treatment there since government attacks on Sweida began. Jiryes al Ishaq, a Christian who lived on a farmland on the western outskirts of Sweida, said he fled the government advance to the Greek Orthodox parish in the centre of the city. 'Pillage has been widespread but I don't know what happened to my land,' he said. 'We are provided for at the parish, because the authorities have vowed not to harm [the compound], but the rest of the city is devastated,' he said, pointing out unconfirmed reports that government militants had killed a Christian family of a dozen members in Sweida. The government had said during the offensive that killings would result in prosecutions. Fighting in Sweida - in pictures Sweida, with its basalt rock landscape, is home to 270,000 Druze who comprise most members of the sect left in Syria after waves of migration, particularly during the 2011 to 2024 civil war. There are an estimated one million Druze worldwide, mainly in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and a diaspora in Latin America. From 1925 to 1927, the Druze, led by Sultan Basha Al Atrash, mounted a revolt against French rule. The revolt failed but it was instrumental in projecting the image of the Druze as being Syrians first in a predominantly Sunni country. Sultan Al Atrash became a figure in the narrative of Arab nationalists across the Middle East. Bedouin tribes, some of whom have been attacking Sweida, had joined him in the revolt. Sunni merchants in Damascus, who later supported former leader Bashar Al Assad and the post Assad order, financed the Druze armed struggle against the French as thousands of Druze fighters were killed with superior French firepower. Sultan Al Atrash died in 1982. However, one of his daughters, Muntaha, led peaceful resistance in Sweida when the March 2011 protest movement broke out. In the last 15 months of Mr Al Assad's rule, Sweida renewed the civil disobedience movement demanding the removal of the regime. Among its leaders was Sheikh Hikmat Al Hijri, the most senior of a triumvirate comprising the Druze spiritual leadership. Suhail Tebian, a prominent Druze civil figure who had opposed an increased arming of the Druze under Mr Al Hijri since the regime fell, said the community has had no choice but to resist government forces comprising religious extremists, although the cost has been high. 'Sweida has become a disaster zone,' Mr Thebian said. There is nothing more I can tell you. I have survived, for now'. Mr Al Hijri resisted attempts by the new authorities – formerly Hayat Tahrir Al Sham – to control Sweida, saying that new security forces should be drawn from residents of the province. He labelled the government as extremists and undemocratic, pointing out the lack of any independent branches in the new political system. So, when clashes began in Sweida last week between Druze and Sunni residents of Bedouin origins, Mr Al Hijri refused government security forces in the city. This set the scene for a week of incursions in which the government recruited rural Sunnis on its side, from Sweida and nearby Deraa. The authorities also taken by bus in more Sunnis, this time Bedouin, from the province of Deir Ezzor, in the eastern fringes of Syria, and from the governorate of Aleppo. But even Druze who have been critical of Mr Al Hijri's handling of the crisis said the blood shed by the government forces and its auxiliaries have robbed it of credibility. 'They have cut the internet to make it difficult to know and document the size of the atrocities they committed,' said Nawaf, another Druze doctor. An engineer in Sweida said the city and nearby villages 'have been devastated'. 'We can't even reach them,' he said. 'Bodies are still lying in open fields. There is no [transport] vehicles. No gasoline. I went to see the [main] hospital, it can't receive anyone. It is out of service.'
The National
5 days ago
- Politics
- The National
'We fear we're next': Druze in Damascus lock doors after fighting in Syria's south
In Jaramana, the largest Druze -majority district of Damascus, fear has taken root. Shops once buzzing with late-night customers now close before sundown. Streets grow silent after dark. Behind closed doors, families speak in hushed tones, watching videos from Sweida on repeat – scenes of charred homes, collapsing hospitals, and bodies pulled from the rubble. A ceasefire may have halted the gunfire in Syria 's south, but the dread is still spreading north. 'We don't trust this quiet,' said Khaldoun, a 35-year-old mechanic. 'After what happened in Sweida, we're locking our doors earlier. We hear rumours that more militia groups are coming. We've seen how fast things can change.' Last week's brutal assault on Sweida, one of Syria's last remaining Druze strongholds, left more than 500 people dead – among them fighters from both sides, women, children, and civilians. Entire neighbourhoods were stormed by tribal militias and pro-government fighters. Mortar shells struck residential blocks, and water tanks were reportedly poisoned by attackings groups. The main hospital was overwhelmed and partially destroyed, unable to treat the wounded or store the dead as electricity and refrigeration failed. Witnesses described the city as a war zone, with bodies left to rot in the streets and entire families missing. Bassel, a 24-year-old medical student from Sweida now living in Damascus, told The National: 'Who are we supposed to mourn first? The numbers are too large to comprehend. 'The bodies of our people, our families, our friends … scattered everywhere. The world moved on while we drowned in blood, buried under attack. We won't forgive. No one should stay silent in the face of injustice.' For the Druze of Jaramana, the aftermath is more psychological than physical – but no less traumatic. Known for its complex relationship with the Syrian state, Jaramana is home to thousands of people originally from Sweida. The ties between the two communities are social, religious and deeply personal. So when Sweida burnt, Jaramana felt the heat. 'There is no doubt that the escalation in Sweida will have consequences here,' said Salman Katbeh, a political activist in Jaramana. 'Our priority was to prevent the unrest from spilling over. We didn't want a bloodbath. Community elders worked hard to keep things calm, especially with the younger generation. But we're all walking a tightrope.' As rumours of retribution swirl, local leaders in Jaramana have tried to prevent provocations. 'There were protests,' Mr Katbeh said. 'The Syrian flag was taken down temporarily, but then put back up. You can't stop people from reacting emotionally – you can only try to keep it under control.' In private, the fears are more specific. 'If some groups can't go fight Israel,' Mr Katbeh continued, 'they might turn their guns on us instead. We reject the idea that Israel's strikes were somehow 'because of the Druze.' That kind of narrative is dangerous and false.' On Tuesday night, Israel bombed several sites around Damascus, killing at least 15 pro-government personnel and levelling parts of the Ministry of Defence. The strikes added another layer of complexity to an already combustible situation. As missiles lit up the sky, residents in Jaramana huddled indoors – uncertain whether the war outside was coming home. 'It's like we're surrounded,' Bassel said. 'From the sky, from the ground, even from our neighbours. When Israel bombs us, we expect fear. But now we fear our own.' The Syrian government's response has been cautious. President Ahmad Al Shara addressed the nation on Thursday, insisting the Druze remain 'an integral part of Syria's social fabric' and rejecting any notion of separatism. Mr Al Shara said the state had delegated the task of securing Sweida to local factions and religious leaders – a decision he described as a 'national safeguard' to avoid wider conflict. But in Jaramana, those reassurances ring hollow. 'The damage is already done,' said one Druze resident, who asked to remain anonymous. 'We no longer know who to trust – the army, the militias, the neighbours. If Sweida was punished for being neutral, what does that mean for us?.' Druze boycott Economic warfare has followed the physical violence. A coalition of Damascus-based merchants aligned with pro-government circles announced a full boycott of Sweida, accusing its people of treason and collusion with Israel. Hawala networks were severed, money transfers frozen, and Druze merchants blacklisted from city markets. According to Syria analyst Aymenn Tamimi from the Middle East Forum, the fallout reflects something deeper and more systemic. 'The events in Sweida have sent shock waves through Syria's Druze population,' he told The National. 'What we're seeing now is a mix of political retribution, localised power struggles, and weaponised sectarianism. The Druze in Damascus are especially vulnerable – not just physically, but socially. They've lived in a delicate balance, but that balance is eroding quickly.' Over 100 bodies remain unburied or unidentified in Sweida. The main hospital is barely functional, its medical staff running on no sleep, with no space in morgues and no supplies left. Thousands remain displaced. And as tension simmers, the fear of further escalation hangs over Druze communities like a cloud that refuses to lift. And while political actors debate responsibility, people in Jaramana are preparing for the worst. In the end, these are not isolated tragedies – they are cries from a country at war with itself, the Druze of Damascus brace for what they pray won't come next.
