Combating has flared off and on in southern Syria for just about a month, regardless of a delicate ceasefire. Violence in July 2025 left greater than 1,600 other folks lifeless, in keeping with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, together with a minimum of 166 civilians. The crowd, which is primarily based in the UK, additionally recorded 401 circumstances of extrajudicial executions via state safety forces.
The entire extent of the destruction and humanitarian disaster remains to be rising in spaces round Sweida, a area that’s house to lots of the nation’s Druze minority. Combating first flared in mid-July after Bedouins attacked a Druze resident at a checkpoint.
As violence between Druze militias and Bedouin opponents escalated, Syrian forces entered to purportedly calm the tensions. However forces aligned with the Syrian executive were accused of concentrated on the Druze, together with atrocities corresponding to a bloodbath at a neighborhood clinic and executing unarmed civilians. In spite of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, get entry to to Sweida stays limited, with most effective restricted help allowed in.
On the core of the struggle lies Syria’s long-standing demanding situations integrating peripheral areas and minorities, which has proved specifically bad for the Druze. Many leaders within the new regime have roots within the extremist Islamic defense force Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which grew out of a bunch affiliated with al-Qaida, prompting considerations that the central executive will attempt to impose its non secular and cultural norms.
As Druze research students, we imagine the disaster in Sweida encapsulates Syrians’ key demanding situations: protective the rustic’s variety and balancing regional autonomy with cohesion.
Ottoman historical past
The Druze broke off from the Ismaili faculty of Shiite Islam throughout the Fatimid Caliphate, an empire that dominated massive portions of North Africa and the Center East.
Within the eleventh century, the group established a definite non secular id and nowadays has about 1 million to at least one.5 million individuals. Maximum are living within the Center East, with smaller diaspora communities around the globe. The most important middle is in Hawran, a space in present-day southern Syria that incorporates town of Sweida.
Druze males stroll within the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, house to a big Druze group.
AP Picture/Ariel Schalit
Many roots of the Druze’s demanding situations nowadays date again to the Ottoman length – specifically considerations about autonomy. In 1837-1838, the group in Hawran led a revolt in opposition to Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Egypt, to withstand compelled disarmament and conscription.
The nine-month struggle ended with an settlement to exempt the Druze from serving in his army. Extra widely, this tournament showcased Druze dedication to autonomy and self-defense with the intention to keep their id and shield their non secular freedom.
Importantly, the rebellion additionally resulted in the established order of the Hajari sheikhdom, the oldest of the Syrian Druze group’s 3 known non secular government. Sheikh Abu Hussein Ibrahim al-Hajari, who led resistance in opposition to Egyptian forces, is the great-grandfather of Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, the present Druze chief searching for autonomy in Syria.
During the past due Ottoman length, the Druze endured to withstand disarmament and conscription. They controlled to handle vital autonomy neatly into the 20 th century, frequently dominated via a neighborhood Druze emir, and retain the liberty to observe their very own religion and tradition.
Fashionable Syrian state
A brand new problem to Druze autonomy got here after Global Struggle I, then again. The French received keep watch over of a mandate in present-day Syria and Lebanon and established the self sufficient state of Jabal al-Druze. They later imposed direct rule, prompting the Druze to release an armed revolt beneath the management of Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, whom many Syrians nonetheless revere as a hero.
Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, who led the Syrian rise up of 1925.
G. Eric and Edith Matson {Photograph} Assortment/Library of Congress by way of Wikimedia Commons
Even though the revolt started in Sweida, it temporarily changed into a national motion for liberty, cohesion and independence from the French: the Nice Syrian Rebellion, which lasted from 1925-27.
The rustic ultimately received independence in 1946, however the Druze endured to stand demanding situations. In 1949, as an example, army officer Adib al-Shishakli seized keep watch over of the Syrian executive. He accused the Druze of apostasy, treason and collusion with exterior powers, together with Israel. In 1953, Shishakli introduced an attack on Sweida and shelled Druze villages, killing about 300 civilians.
Underneath the Baath regimes, which lasted from 1963-2024, Druze officials have been purged from the higher army ranks. The group used to be politically marginalized, and Druze spaces within the south have been excluded from financial building, leaving them chronically impoverished.
Syrian civil warfare
The beginning of the Syrian civil warfare, which started within the wake of 2011’s “Arab Spring” protests, put the Druze in a hard place.
First of all, some had supported Bashar Assad’s regime, hoping it will offer protection to their group from the warfare. On the other hand, they adverse army provider. As time went on, the Druze attempted to handle neutrality, embracing the slogan “Syrian blood is forbidden to be shed by Syrians.”
In the beginning, the numerous riot teams preventing Assad’s forces integrated each secular and Islamic militias. Islamic teams steadily took keep watch over of the revolution, then again, making the Druze even much less forced to sign up for.
Because the warfare intensified, they held protests for political and financial alternate. Druze chief Sheikh Wahid al-Balous shaped native protection forces known as Harakat Rijal Al-Karama, the Males of Dignity, to offer protection to their cities and safe haven defecting infantrymen, maintaining order and a few level of autonomy.
This didn’t protect the Druze from the warfare’s ravages. In spite of the Druze’s nonviolent stance, their communities have been focused from time to time for his or her non secular id and refusal to again the regime.
In 2023, amid a deepening financial disaster, the Druze introduced a relaxed rebellion not easy regime alternate, financial reform and political freedom.
New executive
Assad fled the rustic in December 2024, and an meantime executive used to be installed position beneath Ahmad al-Sharaa. Many Druze in Sweida deeply mistrust al-Sharaa and his friends, then again, and are anxious that the brand new executive will rein of their freedoms.
All over the warfare, he led the Islamist defense force HTS, which advanced from the al-Qaida associate Jabhat al-Nusra. Jabhat al-Nusra used to be answerable for the Qalb Loze bloodbath in 2015, which killed about two dozen Druze civilians. Jubhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State workforce additionally clashed with Druze communities in Sweida and Hadar, a Druze village within the Syrian portion of the Golan Heights, inflicting masses of deaths.
In January 2025, al-Sharaa vowed to create an inclusive nation, calling “all Syrians to participate in building a new homeland.” However the brand new executive has since raised fear amongst minority communities.
The transitional charter, as an example, grants the president large powers over the legislature and judiciary branches – and HTS individuals occupy all key positions within the president’s Cupboard.
After coming to energy, al-Sharaa tried to say federal keep watch over. The federal government moved to disarm different militias, together with Kurd, Alawite and Druze self-defense teams, and sidelined native leaders.
Mistrust intensified in March and April as opponents aligned with the brand new executive massacred Alawites in coastal communities. Then, in past due April, a fabricated recording of a Druze non secular guy insulting the Prophet Muhammad incited sectarian violence in opposition to Druze cities close to Damascus. The accused guy denied he had made the recording, and Syria’s Ministry of Internal showed it used to be pretend as neatly. Safety forces have been deployed to the world, and the violence killed greater than 100 Druze opponents and civilians, in keeping with the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The struggle ended with a ceasefire settlement, beneath which the meantime executive delegated safety in Sweida to native forces and would safeguard the freeway to Damascus – the district’s hyperlink to the out of doors global. The settlement additionally lifted a siege on Druze villages close to Damascus and Sweida.
The July struggle, then again, used to be sparked via a Bedouin checkpoint that blocked the similar freeway, and it escalated when the federal government deployed military from out of doors the district – violations of the settlement’s phrases.
Syrian safety forces deploy within the town of Jaraman, close to Damascus, on April 30, 2025.
Bakr Al Kasem/Anadolu by way of Getty Photographs
Glance to the long run
Al-Hijri, probably the most outstanding of the 3 Druze clerics in Syria, has been particularly vital of the transitional executive. He has known as for an earthly, decentralized Syrian state that promises minority rights and their regional autonomy.
To many minority teams, it sort of feels the new brutality in Alawite, Christian and Druze spaces used to be now not meant simply to impose the state’s unique authority to carry guns, but in addition to suppress their democratic aspirations and nationwide participation.
In the end, the core factor is the Syrian executive’s failure to incorporate and offer protection to all electorate: Druze, Alawites, Christians, Kurds, Bedouins and different Sunni Muslims alike. With out alternate, we worry the promise of a democratic post-Assad Syria stays hole and the brand new regime dangers repeating its predecessors’ screw ups.
What is occurring in Sweida isn’t a neighborhood disaster: For Syrians and the global group, we imagine, this is a vital take a look at of the rustic’s long term and the area’s balance.
