The Syrian Defense Ministry has announced a ceasefire between Druze forces and Bedouin tribes in and around the city of Suwayda, following Syrian security forces entering the city aiming to bring an end to multiple days of fighting.
Today’s reports suggest around 200 people were killed overall in the fighting, which began Sunday with both sides clashing in the neighborhood of Maqus. Both sides were accusing the other of engaging in kidnappings, and eventually the fighting escalated to the city as well as the surrounding area.
Though the ceasefire was declared, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported that clashes have continued, and says that as many as 93 Defense Ministry forces are among the dead now.
Aftermath of Suwayda fighting | Image from SOHR
Suwayda is a Druze-majority city, while Maqus is a Bedouin-heavy neighborhood. The two sides have long lived side by side, though it has sometimes been tense. Syrian security forces were first sent to the area Sunday when the fighting started, and have been accused participating in fighting against the Druze and even carrying out summary executions of civilians.
Locals said troops entered the city originally nominally to restore order, but were rampaging through neighborhoods before long, looting and burning buildings and killing civilians themselves.
Officials haven’t addressed these allegations, but it’s largely the same as what happened in the northwest earlier in the year, when fighting involving the Alawites turned into massacres, with government-aligned forces participating in executions there as well. Since the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) government is styling itself as open to religious minorities, their involvement in killing those minorities is potentially quite embarrassing, even if the government has so far made empty promises of investigations and the matter has largely been dropped internationally.
Further adding to the challenge of this tension in Suwayda is that Israel forbade Syria from having security forces there, and actively carried out strikes against security forces as they approached Suwayda.
This has been an ongoing problem, Israel has declared the whole south of Syria a no-go for Syria’s military and attacks them when they violate that demand. Though the HTS has largely not reacted beyond some international complaints, the Foreign Ministry has asserted the “right to defend ourselves” from Israeli aggression. This could potentially complicate Israel-Syria normalization talks, which were already rather complicated given the ongoing Israeli invasion in the southwest.
