Latest news with #Syrian government
Globe and Mail
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
Syria believed it had green light from U.S., Israel to deploy troops to Sweida, sources say
Syria's government misread how Israel would respond to its troops deploying to the country's south this week, encouraged by U.S. messaging that Syria should be governed as a centralized state, eight sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and on Damascus on Wednesday in an escalation that took the Islamist-led leadership by surprise, the sources said, after government forces were accused of killing scores of people in the Druze city of Sweida. Damascus believed it had a green light from both the U.S. and Israel to dispatch its forces south despite months of Israeli warnings not to do so, according to the sources, which include Syrian political and military officials, two diplomats, and regional security sources. That understanding was based on public and private comments from U.S. special envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, as well as on nascent security talks with Israel, the sources said. Barrack has called for Syria to be centrally administered as 'one country' without autonomous zones. Syria's understanding of U.S. and Israeli messages regarding its troop deployment to the south has not been previously reported. A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on private diplomatic discussions but said the United States supported the territorial unity of Syria. 'The Syrian state has an obligation to protect all Syrians, including minority groups,' the spokesperson said, urging the Syrian government to hold perpetrators of violence accountable. In response to Reuters questions, a senior official from Syria's ministry of foreign affairs denied that Barrack's comments had influenced the decision to deploy troops, which was made based on 'purely national considerations' and with the aim of 'stopping the bloodshed, protecting civilians and preventing the escalation of civil conflict.' Damascus sent troops and tanks to Sweida province on Monday to quell fighting between Bedouin tribes and armed factions within the Druze community – a minority that follows a religion derived from Islam, with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Syrian forces entering the city came under fire from Druze militia, according to Syrian sources. Subsequent violence attributed to Syrian troops, including field executions and the humiliation of Druze civilians, triggered Israeli strikes on Syrian security forces, the defence ministry in Damascus and the environs of the presidential palace, according to two sources, including a senior Gulf Arab official. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel intervened to block Syrian troops from entering southern Syria – which Israel has publicly said should be a demilitarized zone – and to uphold a long-standing commitment to protect the Druze. Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has vowed to hold accountable those responsible for violations against the Druze. He blamed 'outlaw groups' seeking to inflame tensions for any crimes against civilians and did not say whether government forces were involved. Syria and Israel agree to ceasefire, U.S. envoy says after Druze-Bedouin ceasefire collapses The U.S. and others quickly intervened to secure a ceasefire by Wednesday evening. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the flare-up as a 'misunderstanding' between Israel and Syria. A Syrian and a Western source familiar with the matter said Damascus believed that talks with Israel as recently as last week in Baku produced an understanding over the deployment of troops to southern Syria to bring Sweida under government control. Netanyahu's office declined to comment in response Reuters' questions. Israel said on Friday it had agreed to allow limited access by Syrian forces into Sweida for the next two days. Soon after, Syria said it would deploy a force dedicated to ending the communal clashes, which continued into Saturday morning. Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said it appeared Sharaa had overplayed his hand earlier in the week. 'It seems that his military staff misunderstood the backing of the U.S. It also misunderstood Israel's stand on the Jabal Druze (in Sweida) from its talks with Israel in Baku,' he said. A Syrian military official said correspondence with the U.S. had led Damascus to believe it could deploy forces without Israel confronting them. The official said U.S. officials had not responded when informed about plans for the deployment, leading the Syrian leadership to believe it had been tacitly approved and 'that Israel would not interfere.' A diplomat based in Damascus said Syrian authorities had been 'overconfident' in its operation to seize Sweida, 'based on U.S. messaging that turned out not to reflect reality.' U.S. envoy Barrack has said publicly and in private meetings in Damascus that Syria should be 'one country,' without autonomous rule for its Druze, Kurdish or Alawite communities, which remain largely distrustful of the new Islamist-led leadership. That distrust has prompted Druze factions and a major Kurdish force in northeast Syria to resist Syrian army deployments, and demand their own fighters be integrated into the army as wholesale units only stationed in their territory. Landis said it appeared Sharaa had understood Barrack's statements against federalism in Syria 'to mean that the central government could impose its will on the Druze minority by force.' The senior Gulf official said Damascus had made a 'big mistake' in its approach to Sweida, saying troops had committed violations including killing and humiliating Druze. The nature of violence handed Israel an opportunity to act forcefully, the Gulf official and another source said. The Syrian Network for Human Rights, an independent monitoring group, said on Friday the death toll from the violence had reached at least 321 people, among them medical personnel, women and children. It said they included field executions by all sides. Reuters was able to verify the time and location of some videos showing dead bodies in Sweida, but could not independently verify who conducted the killings or when they occurred. A regional intelligence source said Sharaa had not been in control of events on the ground because of the lack of a disciplined military and his reliance instead on a patchwork of militia groups, often with a background in Islamic militancy. In sectarian violence in Syria's coastal region in March hundreds of people from the Alawite minority were killed by forces aligned to Sharaa. With more blood spilled and distrust of Sharaa's government high among minorities, the senior Gulf Arab official said there are 'real fears that Syria is heading toward being broken up into statelets.' The official from the Syrian ministry of foreign affairs said the Sweida operation was not aimed at revenge or escalation, but at preserving the peace and unity of the country. Syrian troops were ready to re-engage to end the communal violence there 'whenever appropriate conditions arise, including clear guarantees from the United States that Israel will not intervene,' the official said, speaking before the Israeli announcement. Israel initially lobbied the United States to keep the country weak and decentralized after Assad's fall, Reuters reported in February. In May, U.S. President Donald Trump met with Sharaa, said he would lift all U.S. sanctions, and nudged Israel to engage with Damascus even though much of Israel's political establishment remains skeptical of new Syrian leadership. A State Department spokesperson said on Thursday that the U.S. 'did not support' Israel's strikes on Sweida this week. The attacks also came as a shock to some Americans in Syria. Hours before Israel struck the capital city on Wednesday, executives from three US-based energy companies arrived in Damascus for a day of meetings. The lead member and organizer, Argent LNG CEO Jonathan Bass, told Reuters he had been sufficiently reassured by Washington that the violence unfolding in Sweida would not escalate to Damascus. They were pitching an energy project to Syria's finance minister when Israel struck.
Reuters
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Exclusive: Syria believed it had green light from US, Israel to deploy troops to Sweida
DAMASCUS/BEIRUT, July 19 (Reuters) - Syria's government misread how Israel would respond to its troops deploying to the country's south this week, encouraged by U.S. messaging that Syria should be governed as a centralized state, eight sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and on Damascus on Wednesday in an escalation that took the Islamist-led leadership by surprise, the sources said, after government forces were accused of killing scores of people in the Druze city of Sweida. Damascus believed it had a green light from both the U.S. and Israel to dispatch its forces south despite months of Israeli warnings not to do so, according to the sources, which include Syrian political and military officials, two diplomats, and regional security sources. That understanding was based on public and private comments from U.S. special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack, as well as on nascent security talks with Israel, the sources said. Barrack has called for Syria to be centrally administered as "one country" without autonomous zones. Syria's understanding of U.S. and Israeli messages regarding its troop deployment to the south has not been previously reported. A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on private diplomatic discussions but said the United States supported the territorial unity of Syria. "The Syrian state has an obligation to protect all Syrians, including minority groups," the spokesperson said, urging the Syrian government to hold perpetrators of violence accountable. In response to Reuters questions, a senior official from Syria's ministry of foreign affairs denied that Barrack's comments had influenced the decision to deploy troops, which was made based on "purely national considerations" and with the aim of "stopping the bloodshed, protecting civilians and preventing the escalation of civil conflict". Damascus sent troops and tanks to Sweida province on Monday to quell fighting between Bedouin tribes and armed factions within the Druze community - a minority that follows a religion derived from Islam, with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Syrian forces entering the city came under fire from Druze militia, according to Syrian sources. Subsequent violence attributed to Syrian troops, including field executions and the humiliation of Druze civilians, triggered Israeli strikes on Syrian security forces, the defense ministry in Damascus and the environs of the presidential palace, according to two sources, including a senior Gulf Arab official. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel intervened to block Syrian troops from entering southern Syria - which Israel has publicly said should be a demilitarized zone - and to uphold a longstanding commitment to protect the Druze. Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has vowed to hold accountable those responsible for violations against the Druze. He blamed "outlaw groups" seeking to inflame tensions for any crimes against civilians and did not say whether government forces were involved. The U.S. and others quickly intervened to secure a ceasefire by Wednesday evening. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the flare-up as a "misunderstanding" between Israel and Syria. A Syrian and a Western source familiar with the matter said Damascus believed that talks with Israel as recently as last week in Baku produced an understanding over the deployment of troops to southern Syria to bring Sweida under government control. Netanyahu's office declined to comment in response Reuters' questions. Israel said on Friday it had agreed to allow limited access by Syrian forces into Sweida for the next two days. Soon after, Syria said it would deploy a force dedicated to ending the communal clashes, which continued into Saturday morning. Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said it appeared Sharaa had overplayed his hand earlier in the week. "It seems that his military staff misunderstood the backing of the U.S. It also misunderstood Israel's stand on the Jabal Druze (in Sweida) from its talks with Israel in Baku," he said. A Syrian military official said correspondence with the U.S. had led Damascus to believe it could deploy forces without Israel confronting them. The official said U.S. officials had not responded when informed about plans for the deployment, leading the Syrian leadership to believe it had been tacitly approved and "that Israel would not interfere." A diplomat based in Damascus said Syrian authorities had been "overconfident" in its operation to seize Sweida, "based on U.S. messaging that turned out not to reflect reality." U.S. envoy Barrack has said publicly and in private meetings in Damascus that Syria should be "one country," without autonomous rule for its Druze, Kurdish or Alawite communities, which remain largely distrustful of the new Islamist-led leadership. That distrust has prompted Druze factions and a major Kurdish force in northeast Syria to resist Syrian army deployments, and demand their own fighters be integrated into the army as wholesale units only stationed in their territory. Landis said it appeared Sharaa had understood Barrack's statements against federalism in Syria "to mean that the central government could impose its will on the Druze minority by force." The senior Gulf official said Damascus had made a "big mistake" in its approach to Sweida, saying troops had committed violations including killing and humiliating Druze. The nature of violence handed Israel an opportunity to act forcefully, the Gulf official and another source said. The Syrian Network for Human Rights, an independent monitoring group, said on Friday the death toll from the violence had reached at least 321 people, among them medical personnel, women and children. It said they included field executions by all sides. Reuters was able to verify the time and location of some videos showing dead bodies in Sweida, but could not independently verify who conducted the killings or when they occurred. A regional intelligence source said Sharaa had not been in control of events on the ground because of the lack of a disciplined military and his reliance instead on a patchwork of militia groups, often with a background in Islamic militancy. In sectarian violence in Syria's coastal region in March hundreds of people from the Alawite minority were killed by forces aligned to Sharaa. With more blood spilt and distrust of Sharaa's government high among minorities, the senior Gulf Arab official said there are "real fears that Syria is heading towards being broken up into statelets." The official from the Syrian ministry of foreign affairs said the Sweida operation was not aimed at revenge or escalation, but at preserving the peace and unity of the country. Syrian troops were ready to re-engage to end the communal violence there "whenever appropriate conditions arise, including clear guarantees from the United States that Israel will not intervene," the official said, speaking before the Israeli announcement. Israel initially lobbied the United States to keep the country weak and decentralised after Assad's fall, Reuters reported in February. In May, U.S. President Donald Trump met with Sharaa, said he would lift all U.S. sanctions, and nudged Israel to engage with Damascus even though much of Israel's political establishment remains skeptical of new Syrian leadership. A State Department spokesperson said on Thursday that the U.S. "did not support" Israel's strikes on Sweida this week. The attacks also came as a shock to some Americans in Syria. Hours before Israel struck the capital city on Wednesday, executives from three US-based energy companies arrived in Damascus for a day of meetings. The lead member and organizer, Argent LNG CEO Jonathan Bass, told Reuters he had been sufficiently reassured by Washington that the violence unfolding in Sweida would not escalate to Damascus. They were pitching an energy project to Syria's finance minister when Israel struck.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Syrian media report Israeli strike near violence-hit Druze city
Syrian state-run media say Israel carried out an air strike near Syria's southern Druze-majority city of Suweida late on Sana news agency is reporting that "Israeli occupation aircraft carried out a raid on the outskirts" of the city, without giving any further details. Israel's military has not commented on the confirmed, it would the first Israeli attack in the area since Syrian government forces pulled out following deadly sectarian fighting on Sunday.A monitoring group says nearly 600 people have been killed in clashes in the Suweida province involving the Druze religious minority, Bedouin fighters and government forces. The UK-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) documented a significant outbreak of brutality in the killings that gripped the province since says that 300 Druze were killed, including 146 fighters and 154 civilians, 83 of whom were "summarily executed" by government least 257 government personnel and 18 Bedouin fighters were also killed, while three Bedouin civilians were summarily killed by Druze fighters, it fighting was sparked by a dispute between the Bedouin and Druze 15 government personnel were reportedly killed in Israel air strikes, which Israel said it carried out to protect the Druze and make the government forces withdraw from was not immediately possible to verify the SOHR's figures. However, security sources put the death toll at 300 and another monitoring group, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said it had documented the deaths of at least 169 civilians. On Thursday, Suweida residents reported scenes of damage and looting, as well as bodies being found in the of fighters from Syria's Islamist-led government began entering the city on Monday, ostensibly to restore order following the clashes between the Druze and Bedouin. But that was followed by an escalation in the fighting and a fracturing of Syria's Druze, whose religion is an offshoot of Shia Islam with its own unique identity and Syrian government announced a ceasefire on Wednesday evening ahead of its one prominent Druze leader, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri, rejected it, calling for further fighting until the "total liberation of our province from gangs", referring to government Hajri, whose followers led the fighting against the government's forces, has sought to forge close relationships with Israel. Other branches of Suweida's Druze community have sought to work closely with Syria's new Islamist-led government. There is also a sizeable Druze community in Israel and the occupied Golan Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel intended to continue imposing its interests on Syria with intervention in the clashes was done partly to protect the Druze, Netanyahu said, but also to prevent the Syrian military from deploying in the south of the country."That will also be our policy going forward - we will not allow Syrian army forces to enter the region south of Damascus, and will not allow any harm to the Druze," he Wednesday, Israeli air strikes caused severe damage to the Syrian ministry of defence in Damascus and struck the vicinity of the presidential palace - a dramatic escalation in Israel's repeated attacks on its neighbour since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December last a televised statement on Wednesday evening, Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa called Israel's attacks an attempt to destabilise his country."We find ourselves in the heart of a battle to protect the unity of our land, the dignity of our people and the resilience of our nation," he said. "The Israeli entity, which has consistently targeted our stability and sown discord since the fall of the former regime, now seeks once again to turn our sacred land into a theatre of endless chaos."Addressing Syria's Druze, he continued: "We affirm that protecting your rights and freedoms is among our top priorities. We reject any attempt - foreign or domestic - to sow division."
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
Israel bombs Syria army HQ after warning Damascus to leave Druze alone
Israel bombed the Syrian army headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday after warning the Islamist-led government to leave the Druze minority alone in its Sweida heartland, where a war monitor says sectarian clashes have killed nearly 250 people. Syrian government forces on Tuesday entered the majority-Druze city of Sweida, in the country's south, with the stated aim of overseeing a ceasefire agreed with Druze community leaders after clashes with local Bedouin tribes left dozens dead. However, witnesses reported that the government forces joined with the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians in a bloody rampage through the city. The fighting marks the most serious outbreak of violence in Syria since government forces battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May leaving more than 100 people dead. The Islamist-led authorities have had strained relations with Syria's patchwork of religious and ethnic minorities since they toppled longtime leader Bashar al-Assad in December. Israel has presented itself as a defender of the Druze, although some analysts say that is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far from the border as possible. Syrian state TV reported several Israeli strikes on Wednesday near the army and defence ministry headquarters in central Damascus, and Israel's military said it had "struck the entrance of the Syrian regime's military headquarters". AFP images showed the side of a building in the defence complex in ruins after the strike, as smoke billowed over the area. The Syrian health ministry said in a preliminary toll that nine people were wounded in the strikes. - 'Existential battle' - Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz called on Damascus to "leave the Druze in Sweida alone", later threatening in a statement to unleash "painful blows" to "eliminate the forces that attacked the Druze until their full withdrawal" from Syria's south. Israel, home to tens of thousands of Druze, said it was sending more troops to the armistice line between the occupied Golan Heights and Syrian-controlled territory. Dozens of people were trying to cross the heavily fortified frontier, according to AFP correspondent in Majdal Shams, a mainly Druze town in the Israeli-annexed Golan. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Druze not to cross, warning of a "very serious" situation in Sweida. A military statement said Israeli forces were "operating to prevent the infiltration" from Syrian territory and to "safely return the civilians who crossed the border" from the Israeli-controlled side. Netanyahu said in February that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised, warning that Israel would not accept the presence of forces of the Islamist-led government near territory it controls. The head of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, called the situation "an existential battle for the Druze community". The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor has said at least 21 Druze civilians had been killed "in summary executions by government forces". The Syrian presidency condemned in a statement the "heinous acts" in Sweida, expressing "full commitment to investigating all related incidents and punishing all those proven to be involved". Sporadic gunfire continued to ring out in Sweida on Wednesday, an AFP correspondent reported. Columns of smoke were seen rising from several areas amid the sound of shelling. The correspondent counted the bodies of around 30 combatants, some in plain clothes and some in military uniform. - 'Step back' - The Observatory, witnesses and Druze armed groups have said government forces took part in fighting alongside the Bedouin against the Druze. The Syrian defence ministry accused "outlaw groups" of attacking its forces inside the city, saying they are now "continuing to respond to the sources of fire". The Britain-based Observatory said at least 248 people had been killed in Sweida province since the violence erupted on Sunday, including 92 Druze, 138 Syrian security personnel and 18 allied Bedouin fighters. The Bedouin and the Druze have been at loggerheads for decades. The latest violence erupted after the kidnapping of a Druze vegetable merchant triggered tit-for-tat abductions, the Observatory said. Since they toppled Assad in December, Syria's Islamist authorities have been accused repeatedly of trampling over the rights of the country's religious and ethnic minorities. The United States, a close ally of Israel, said that "all parties must step back and engage in meaningful dialogue that leads to a lasting ceasefire" in Sweida. Washington's special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, added on X that the "perpetrators need to be held accountable". France said that "the abuses targeting civilians, which we strongly condemn, must stop", while the European Union urged "all external actors" to "fully respect Syria's sovereignty".
Al Jazeera
3 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Ceasefire collapses in Syria's Suwayda as Israel threatens escalation
Fighting between Druze armed groups and government troops has continued in the southern Syrian city of Suwayda, with a ceasefire in tatters, as Israel launched further strikes on Syrian forces and warned it would escalate unless they withdrew. The sectarian violence in the predominantly Druze city resumed in force on Wednesday, despite the announcement of a ceasefire by the Syrian government the previous night, Syria's defence ministry told Al Jazeera. Ministry officials blamed groups 'outside the law' for breaking the ceasefire and attacking government troops, who they said were responding to fire while taking into account rules of engagement to protect civilians. Speaking from Damascus, Al Jazeera's Osama Bin Javaid said that following Tuesday's ceasefire announcement, the situation had 'spiralled out of control once again'. He said at least 70 people were believed to have been killed in the fighting so far, while the U.K.-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that more than 250 people had been killed, as of Wednesday morning, including four children, five women and 138 soldiers and security forces. The observatory added that at least 21 people were killed in 'field executions.' 'The situation on the ground is [in] that the city centre itself there are sporadic clashes, but on the outskirts there's a lot of fighting that has been happening between these Druze fighters and [government] forces,' Bin Javaid said. On top of the clashes on the ground, Israel, which sees the Druze minority as a potential ally and has been attacking Syria under the pretext of protecting the group, has continued its air strikes on Syrian troop positions around Suwayda, with at least seven strikes launched on Wednesday, he said. Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday warned the Syrian government on to leave the Druze alone and withdraw its forces from Suwayda, or it would ramp up its strikes. 'As we have made clear and warned — Israel will not abandon the Druze in Syria and will enforce the demilitarisation policy we have decided on,' he said, adding that it would escalate its activity 'if the message is not understood.' Syria has condemned Israel's intervention as a violation of international law as have several Arab nations. The outbreak of violence in the southern city on Sunday was triggered by a wave of recent kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed groups, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Suwayda, witnesses told the Reuters news agency. Syria's Druze population numbers about 700,000, with Suwayda home to the sect's largest community. Bedouin and Druze factions have a longstanding feud in Suwayda, with violence occasionally erupting. Bin Javaid said that tensions in the latest outbreak of violence had been inflamed by material of killings and abuses posted on social media. 'That created a flurry of reaction… from both sides,' he said. Since the overthrow of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, concerns have been raised over the rights and safety of minorities under the new authorities, who have also struggled to re-establish security more broadly. 'Since this government took charge, the Druze have not really accepted them as the government that will look after their aspirations and hopes as well,' said Bin Javaid. Clashes between troops and Druze fighters in April and May killed dozens of people, with local leaders and religious figures signing agreements to contain the escalation and better integrate Druze fighters into the new government. The Druze developed their own militias during the nearly 14-year ruinous civil war. Since al-Assad's fall, different Druze factions have been at odds over whether to integrate with the new government and armed forces.
