Fighting between Bedouin tribes and local fighters in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida in southern Syria has resulted in several fatalities. The clashes, which occurred on Sunday, mark the first outbreak of deadly violence in the area since fighting between members of the Druze community and security forces killed dozens of people in April and May.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, at least eight people were killed, including six Druze and two Bedouin. Local outlet Sweida 24 reported a preliminary toll of seven people killed, “including a child, and about 32 others wounded as a result of armed clashes and mutual shelling in the Maqus neighbourhood”, east of Sweida city. The Damascus-Sweida highway was closed due to the violence.
A Syrian government source, speaking anonymously to AFP news agency, said authorities sent soldiers to de-escalate the situation. Sweida Governor Mustapha al-Bakour called on people to “exercise self-restraint and respond to national calls for reform”.
The Druze population in Syria numbers around 700,000, with Sweida being home to the sect’s largest community. Bedouin and Druze factions have a longstanding feud in Sweida, with violence occasionally erupting. 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.
In April and May, clashes between troops and Druze fighters 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 community has historically played a significant role in Syrian politics, despite being a minority. With a community of little more than 100,000 in 1949, or roughly three percent of the Syrian population, the Druze of Syria’s southwestern mountains constituted a potent force in Syrian politics and played a leading role in the nationalist struggle against the French.¹
The Druze are concentrated in the rural, mountainous areas east and south of Damascus in the area known officially as Jabal al-Druze. The Syrian Druze are estimated to constitute 3.2% of Syria’s population of approximately 23 million, which means they amount to between 700 and 736 thousand people.²
The community has faced threats in the past, including the Qalb Loze massacre in June 2015, where 20-24 Syrian Druze were killed in the village of Qalb Loze in Syria’s northwestern Idlib Governorate. Additionally, in July 2018, a group of Islamic State-affiliated attackers entered the Druze city of as-Suwayda and initiated a series of gunfights and suicide bombings on its streets, killing at least 258 people, the vast majority of them civilians.³