Minority Protection in the New Syrian Government

"There isn’t a single home in the whole province that isn’t grieving someone."

"The youngest victim was 3 months old, killed by shrapnel that hit her stomach. This one was 14. She was slaughtered [young girl, her head turned to the side a scarlet line across her throat]."

"These are only the people we know about and who could reach us [many victims were buried in makeshift graves near people’s homes because the hospital had been surrounded during much of the battles]."

"The final tally will be much worse." 

 Randa Mihrez, one of the coroners at Sweida National Hospital

 

"They were screaming, and I tried to move them, to help them somehow. But I kept slipping on the blood."

"One relative was bleeding out and barely alive. He was begging, ‘Shoot me.’ But I had no weapons on me. I would have done it otherwise."

"[He heard the gunmen say] 'Kill them all. We don’t want them identifying us'."

Hatem Radhwan, 71, Druze Blacksmith 

 

"Initially, we wanted to bury them in the hospital’s backyard, but administrators worried we’d contaminate the water reservoir."

"The bodies were decomposing too much in the sun, they were becoming unrecognizable. We just couldn’t wait anymore [the man who bulldozed a mass grave for 149 people from the hospital either unidentified or whose families were unable to bury them]."

Basel Abu Saab, on a bare mountain outside Sweida's outskirts 

A group of Druze factions move displaced families from the city to the mountains in response to the battles with the Bedouins, Sweida, Syria.  (Hasan Belal/For The Times)

 

"On July 13th, a Bedouin group kidnapped a man and took his car. In retaliation, an armed group linked to the owner detained Bedouins in Swaida’s suburbs. The situation escalated: retaliatory kidnappings, property seizures, then shelling from Bedouin groups, which killed eight people, including a child. Druze fighters mobilized. Mediation led to the release of the hostages by July 14."

"Despite that resolution, on July 15, the ministries of interior and defense announced plans to forcibly enter Swaida to “restore peace.” Many interpreted this as a signal of Israeli approval, believing the Syrian government would not risk a direct retaliatory strike by Israel otherwise. The government’s offensive began from Daraa, targeting western Swaida. Resistance followed—not only from al-Hajari’s groups but also from Rejal El Karama, who supported integration with the state but were not consulted and opposed the incursion."

"A video showing Druze fighters humiliating government forces—including handcuffing and verbally abusing them—prompted further army mobilization. Later videos appeared to show the government forces being executed. The incident intensified the government fighters’ resolve, and the Druze’s basic defenses were quickly overrun. Government forces entered al-Mazra’a, a key village, without resistance. Still, reports of looting and burning houses emerged."

"As the offensive pushed forward, shelling hit residential areas, with reports of significant casualties and destruction of properties. To minimize casualties, identical statements from al-Hajari and Jarbouh welcomed state forces; however, violence continued. Videos surfaced showing fighters without uniforms, foreign accents, homes ablaze, and the public humiliation of elderly civilians. Al-Hajari said the government coerced him into the statement to prevent further bloodshed, but after continued attacks, he called for mass mobilization."

"Numerous Facebook videos showed killings, looting, and shelling. Druze ambushes intensified, and al-Hajari again called for international protection. Israeli airstrikes soon followed, targeting heavy weaponry and demanding a full army withdrawal. The violence triggered a broader popular uprising beyond organized armed groups, forcing many regime forces to retreat."

By Majd AlGhatrif, Atlantic Council 

One of the Druze injured from the city of Sweida receiving treatment at the National Hospital following the battles that took place between the Bedouins and the Druze factions in Sweida, Syria.

(Hasan Belal/For The Times)

 

 Ahmed al-Sharaa, once named Abu Mohammad al-Juliani when he led a terrorist group allied with al-Qaeda, has won the support of Western leaders, most notably U.S. President Donald Trump who was charmed by the young man wearing immaculately designed Western suits, bearded and smiling, claiming "He's a young, attractive guy. He's got a real shot at holding it together", as interim president of a new Syria. A Syria that the new president, after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad with a 14-year civil war of vicious attrition behind him, promised would respect the human rights of Syria's minorities. 

 

Minorities in Syria -- Alawites, Christians, Druze, Kurds, weren't so sure. Nor was Israel, that al-Sharaa/al-Juliano could be trusted to maintain a firm  hold over the Islamist groups that comprised part of the new government's military from the temptation to shoot rockets over the Golan Heights again, at Israeli towns and villages. The Syrian minorities had little option but to wait and see whether the new government's vow to preserve the rights of Syria's minority sects and clans would eventuate, even while the West was persuaded that this was an entirely new Syria.

 

And then, in March and April the coalition of extremists that comprised the new Syrian military went on a rampage within the Alawite community when some 1,500 Alawites were slaughtered. Giving due cause for the other minorities to wonder when their turn would be next. Al-Sharaa/Al-Juliano was shocked, shocked at the carnage, denying his military was involved, claiming that these were outlier Islamist groups -- nothing to do with him and his government. Then the Christians became targets.

 

And finally a week ago, government troops joined local Bedouin tribes to enter the Druze town of Sweida near the Syrian border with Jordan. Long-standing sectarian and ethnic antagonism was on full display as soldiers and Bedouin fighters entered the Sweida hospital to murder patients in their beds. The city of 75,000 was treated to widespread brutality. Reports of rape and Druze women taken hostage. reports of a man tied to a chair and set on fire, his wife and children forced to watch. Young Druze men were bound and forced to jump at gunpoint from balconies.

 

The outbreak of violence in southern Syria's Druze-majority Suweida province has caused alarm in recent days. Jon Donnison, BBC

 

Syrian soldiers, in one video clip, were shown to rip the moustache from a man's face, along with the skin, to great laughter. Druze men were humiliated, forcefully having their moustaches shaved off, where in Druze culture the moustache is a sign of respect and manhood. Hundreds of Druze from Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights crossed into Syria to fight with their Syrian Druze brethren. The IDF warned them to return to Israel. And in response to appeals from Israeli Druze who are loyal Israeli citizens, the IDF took to the skies to bomb government troops in defense of the Syrian Druze.

 

Tensions between the Bedouin and Druze in the area periodically erupted into violence since the fall of the Assad government, but the attack on Sweida was wholesale slaughter, the Druze overwhelmed by the numbers of Sunni Islamist groups joining the Bedouin clans and government soldiers in their murderous rampage. Israel's protective response against Syrian government forces did not win favour in the Trump White house. President Trump's boasts of easily turning swords into ploughshares have not gone well in Ukraine and Gaza.

 

Around 1,500 people from Bedouin tribal families who had been held in Sweida governorate were evacuated earlier this week under a ceasefire agreement, following fierce clashes between tribal forces and Druze gunmen loyal to religious leader Hikmat al-Hijri.  (Rami Alsayed / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

 

 

Primitive Tribal, Sectarian Slaughter in Syria

"This was one of the biggest massacres during the Syrian conflict [killings of Alawite civilians]."

"They killed every man they encountered."

Rami Abdurrahman, chief, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

 

"After they killed the father and his boys, they asked the mother to take her gold off, or they would kill her."

"There’s no water and no power for more than 24 hours, the factions are killing anyone who appears in front of them, the corpses are piled up in the streets. This is collective punishment."

Latakia resident

 

"[France condemned what they said was violence targeting] civilians because of their faith."

"[The French foreign ministry also urged Syria’s authorities to make sure that] independent investigations can shed light on these crimes and that the perpetrators are sentenced."

French statement 

 

"...The indiscriminate firing on everyone including paramedics, was like something from the previous Assad regime."

"They did not have any mercy, so we are against any violence against anyone in the Syrian coast who has not been involved in this unrest."

"All of them are civilians and they are all like our family."

Sunni civilian witness

 

"Thousands have chosen to surrender their weapons and return to their families, while some [Assad loyalists] insist on fleeing and dying in defence of murderers and criminals."

"The choice is clear: lay down your weapons or face your inevitable fate." 

Colonel Hassan Abdul Ghani, Syria defence ministry

Syrian forces head to Latakia after heavy clashes were reported  Reuters

A thousand Syrians are said to have died in the latest clashes taking place in Syria. Assad Alawite loyalists have stormed villages with the intention of targeting men of the majority Sunni sect, while gunmen loyal to the current government stormed three villages close to the Syrian coast killing men there, in the villages of Sheer, Mukhtariyeh and Haffah, according to Syrian war monitor British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

 

"They killed every man they encountered", Rami Abdurrahman, chief of the Observatory said, in reference to gunmen killing residents belonging to Syria's minority Alawite sect, aligned with former Alawite President Bashar al-Assad. Women and children were left unharmed in the three villages after the men were summarily executed. 

 

In the village of Mukhtariyeh, according to Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV, men were separated from women and children, and shot to death. In Sheer and Haffah, similar occurrences took place. Bodies were left lying in the streets. People were terrified of venturing out of their homes, homes where their own men were killed when gunmen went through apartment blocks to knock at doors asking what sect lived in each apartment. 

Funeral of four security forces members in clashes with Assad loyalists March 8, 2024, AP

 An unnamed security official was quoted by State news agency SANA saying that after attacks by forces loyal to Assad left police dead, large numbers of people streamed to areas along the coast "in what led to some individual violations and we are working on stop[ping] them". Updated figures raise the total number of people killed by clashes between government forces and fighters loyal to Assad since conflict broke out on Thursday, to 1,000 dead.

 

Damascus dispatched reinforcements to the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartus overnight, and along to nearby towns and villages in areas representing the heartland of Assad's minority Alawite sect, his base of support, in an effort to bring the situation under control,according to state media outlets. The surge in violent action represents the worst since insurgent groups led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took over the country.

 

Growing concerns after deadly clashes across SyriaMore than a thousand people, mostly civilians, have died during fighting between government forces and supporters of former Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.  REUTERS/Karam al-Masri 

There have been occasional sectarian attacks since then against minority Alawites, despite the new authorities in Damascus pledging they would not permit collective punishment or sectarian vengeance to occur. Alawites held top positions in the army and security agencies, under Bashar al-Assad. His loyalists have been accused by the new government of attacks in recent weeks against the country's new security forces.

 

A curfew was imposed on Latakia and other coastal areas where Friday morning saw large numbers of troops engaged. Security force members describe minor clashes in city neighbourhoods but that most of Latakia was calm, under government control. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdurrahman on the other hand, described the outskirts of the coastal towns of Vaniyas and Jableh remaining under control of Assad loyalists, along with Qardaha, Assad's hometown. 

Fighters with the new Syrian government load a rocket launcher on Friday in Baniyas, Syria. Hundreds of people have been killed in clashes between loyalists of the deposed Assad regime and forces of the country's new rulers. (Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images)