Illustrative image. (Syrian Arab News Agency)
Syrian government forces stormed the Druze-majority city of al-Suwayda in the southeastern part of the country early on July 15, despite Israeli promises to protect the religious minority group.
The Ministry of Defense announced that the military and security forces were entering the city to “protect civilians and restore security.” It also announced a curfew.
“The Syrian Arab Army continues its operations to establish stability and security,” the ministry’s media office said in a statement.
In a separate statement, Ahmad al-Dalati, commander of security forces in al-Suwayda, called on “religious authorities and the leaders of the [Druze] armed factions” to fully cooperate “to secure the city center and ensure the stability of the entire governorate.”
Initially, the leadership of the Druze welcomed the deployment in a statement, calling on armed factions to cooperate, surrender their weapons, and open a dialogue with the government.
However, soon after the spiritual leader of Druze in Syria Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri appeared in a video message of his own, revealing that the first statement was forced on the group by foreign countries and calling on Druze and all Syrians to rise up in support of al-Suwayda.
“Despite our acceptance of this humiliating statement, they violated it and bombed our defenseless civilians,” al-Hijri said.
“After the issuance of the imposed statement, violations by Damascus forces continued, and the killing of civilians and shelling continued,” the leader continued.
“This is a time when we either remain Syrian or accept humiliation and degradation for decades to come,” he added.
Videos posted to social media showed hundreds of government fighters entering al-Suwayda from the city’s western and northern sides. Several uniformed fighters can be heard insulting Druze and vowing to punish them in the footage. Later, reports of arbitrary arrests, beatings and even summary executions began to surface.
However, al-Suwayda is not yet under the complete control of government forces. Druze are still resisting in the center of the city and even in some parts of the countryside.
The battle in al-Suwayda began a day earlier as a result of a local conflict between Druze fighters and Sunni tribesmen. Early on July 14, the Islamist-led government announced that it was intervening to stop the conflict, but ended up backing the tribesmen.
By late April 14, the battle had so far claimed the lives of 60 Druze, including two women and two children, 18 tribesmen, 14 soldiers and seven unidentified fighters, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Ministry of Defense reported the death of at least 16 of its soldiers, which suggests that the real toll is much higher.
Israel, which vowed to defend the Syrian Druze due to its historic relations with its own Druze community, launched several strikes against government forces, including on July 15 morning. However, the strikes were mostly symbolic and not meant to inflict any losses.
It’s worth noting that the government attack on al-Suwayda began right after reports of a high-level meeting between Israeli and Syrian officials in Azerbaijan. It is very likely that Israel had agreed to let go of the Druze in order to advance a peace agreement with Syria.
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syria no longer exists
they will be longing for the days of assad. this is the product of jewish-sunni idiots. they dont make civilization. they destroy it
and soon to be followed by the israhell maggot
the government has fled to moscow, the goddamn gang is sitting in the palace, and if israel throws up in palace a twenty-ton plutonium bomb, i’ll pop open the champagne.
first less watch iran vaporize the vermin occupying palestine.
does anybody seriously imagine that the jooz could care less about the druze, or any of the goyim? just a pretext for more joo thieving.
the israhellis gave away the druze, like they really cared about in the first place, to the mossad agent jewlani for the golan highst. and they will offer him part of lebanon such as tripoli and bakaa area as compensation. heck maybe the whole lebanon to please the dogs in the gulf states. the sunnis will rather kill their own people and destroy their country rather just fire one bullet at israhell to save their own sunni borthers!
these dogs been talking about saving their “brothers” in palenstine for years! where the hell are they? oh yeah they are talking to israhell about peace like the other dogs sunni countries that doesn’t lift a finger for palenstine and that goes for their leaders and people! they have done nothing! what they are good at is killing other religious people to please their masters in israhell and usa. f them all to hell!
all arabs are fair game for the vermin nested in occupied palestine. they must remove the filth that controls them for their yankee paymasters. then and only then can the cho$enite rodent be exterminated. iran and yemen lead the way. now the rest need to sprout cajones. z
mohammadan filth doing the work for its zionazi master. cowardly useless arabs and muslims are running rampant in ussa and urupp after the jooz expelled these losers from new joooish land.
i hope and wish only one thing: that traitorous, dirty russia will be destroyed one day.
syrian arab army, smh 🤦 these are wahabi/takfiri head chopping terrorists.
it’s getting harder and harder for the western media to choose who is the new angel, the right one, our ally in this grotesque story of syria. not long ago, a member of the al qaeda was celebrated, all in a suit, a new ally!!! but this scenario always changes, what never changes is the villainy of these western worms
nothing changed ..now he destroys dzures that that the zionists hate
those bastards are silent now, at one time they never shut up about syria.
i’ll rephrase the title hts al-qaeda terrorists storm the city. in no way they are the syrian government!
hey americans…this is the donald trump you wanted, a lying war-mongering piece of shit. people being slaughtered left and right and not a word. more wars on the horizon…yep, he’s doing what they all have been doing …making america great again…in their own minds. when are we going to hear ‘real america’ speak? or are we, is crickets all there is? or does the world have to wait for you to be starving before you speak? this is some sick-ass shit by a zionist traitor.
syrian government forces : are isis now. many non syrian sunni wahhabbists including julani
did you not know julani is not actually syrian? … yet he is syrian president
there’s a spectrum of forces there, it would be unwise to just say they’re all isis, especially at this point, or else isis really will take damascus in the near future. russia may yet need to give air support to al-sharaa just because he’s now the predictable guy there
it’s not about wisdom, friend. it is fact. all high command and middle command of syrian government forces are isis
israelis in fact abuse druze. there is no nation in the world that the israelis don’t abuse or intend to oppress, the palestinians are just next door at the moment
we want the truth is this what donald has planned for russians
ñetañahu need to drop a nook in damascus to create buffer zone from sunni wahhabi and send warning to ayatollah regime.
you didn’t help the alawites now who is gonna help you ?
i would be happy if india destroyed damascus with atomic bombs.
dirty things done dirt cheap…
trust the zionists…
ewa, if you are going to read this find my mail or my cell phone number. send me the number of your bank account that i give you $ 5,000 for a spell that will effectively eliminate putler. this traitor who betrayed syria and christianity must be removed once and for all.
in case you missed it the guy in the video 4 up from the bottom is firing a heavy machine gun off the back of a motorcycle. it’s really cool!
takfiri bastards… it´s a shame that russia isn´t bombing this bastards and mantaining “bases” in there…russia should leave and test his weapons in “syria”…
fails .. more like betrails .. as al jew-lani is a zionist agent
great job you brain dead apes you spent more than 12 years destroying your own country now it’s a mad max theme park, the israelis must be laughing their heads off.