As tensions run high, will Suwayda’s security agreement hold?

PARIS — Local forces affiliated with the Damascus government’s General Security Directorate were killed and injured in an ambush in western Suwayda on Tuesday, in the latest outburst of violence as a fragile security agreement gets underway in the Druze-majority southern province. 

General security vehicles were “ambushed by outlaw groups affiliated with the so-called [Suwayda] Military Council,” state media said, citing a security source in the province. The vehicles were transporting two injured Suwayda residents who were injured in clashes last week on the Suwayda-Damascus highway and received treatment in Daraa province, it said.

Tuesday’s clashes in al-Dour, a village in the western Suwayda countryside, involved two local armed groups, one of which is affiliated with the general security. That group was transporting the two Suwayda men after receiving them from general security forces at the border with neighboring Daraa province, according to local media network Suwayda 24. 

The ambush and clashes in al-Dour left two general security forces dead and four others injured, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported. “This dangerous escalation by outlaw groups is nothing but a continuation of the approach of evasion and deception they have been following since day one, to sabotage the agreement signed with the Sheikhs of Reason, and destabilize Suwayda province,” it said. 

Damascus reached a security agreement with Suwayda on May 3 to “activate the role of the Ministry of Interior and judicial police in Suwayda,” with their forces made up of local residents. The government also pledged to secure the Damascus-Suwayda highway, without external security personnel entering the province. 

The Suwayda Military Council denied accusations it was involved in the al-Dour ambush on Tuesday, saying the “allegations are baseless, part of a systematic media campaign aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the Military Council and undermining security and stability in Suwayda province.” 

The latest escalation came amid days of insecurity and social tensions in Suwayda province, following last week’s violence in Druze communities near the Syrian capital that spread to the southern province and developed into clashes between Druze armed groups and Bedouin tribal forces in Daraa and Suwayda. 

Ongoing security tensions in Suwayda province point to the fragility of the recent security agreement with Damascus. What are the main challenges it faces? 

‘Decentralized’ administration

Druze religious leadership announced a final version of the agreement with Damascus on Saturday, two days after the three Sheikhs of Reason met with faction commanders and community leaders in Suwayda province. 

The statement emphasized that external general security forces would not enter Suwayda, and that the police force would be limited to “Suwayda residents, in coordination with the three Sheikhs of Reason [Hikmat al-Hijri, Yousef Jerboa, and Hamoud al-Hanawi], the governor of Suwayda, and the Ministry of Interior.” 

Suwayda would not relinquish its weapons, the leadership added, saying nothing in this regard came out of the meeting. “Our weapons are our dignity, and this was done in agreement of all those present,” the statement read. 

Suwayda’s governor, Mustafa Bakour, said on Tuesday that the agreement was in effect, noting that “all the police in Suwayda are from the province, except the police chief and some administrators.” 

Damascus is trying to preserve the agreement, one Syrian military researcher close to the government told Syria Direct on condition of anonymity. It may be “unsatisfactory, but it has no options to reject it, nor the luxury of time, due to internal and regional circumstances,” he said. 

“The agreement gives broad security, military, and administrative authorities to the Sheikhdom of Reason, in exchange for Damascus maintaining a symbolic presence through the governor and police chief,” the researcher added. “Changing the name of the internal security forces from general security to the police,” in a departure from the system in other provinces, “means Suwayda is in a hybrid reality that combines decentralization and the soft control of Damascus.”

Military and strategic expert Asmat al-Absi said that the apparent form of the agreement may “seem unfair to the Syrian government, but it has a strategic, phased plan it is following.” The current goal is to “build bridges of trust and reassure our people in Suwayda, to bring in symbols of the state in a way that signals its control over the province,” he added, so as to preserve “the unity of Syria and cut off the arms of foreign interference in internal affairs.” 

As al-Absi sees it, “an official and symbolic government presence is enough to build trust” at the current stage. He denied that the agreement would lead to “self-administration or decentralization,” as “Suwayda’s circumstances and capabilities do not allow for this kind of governance.” 

Local police forces, made up of Suwayda residents, deployed to the village of al-Sura al-Kabira on Sunday following the withdrawal of general security forces. The village saw military confrontations in the preceding days, during which several homes were burned. Videos of the deployment show local police wearing different uniforms than those worn by security forces in other Syrian provinces.

“What is important at this stage is the deployment of police forces affiliated with the Ministry of Interior, regardless of the rest of the details of the name and uniform,” al-Absi said.” He expected “the Suwayda file will be further regulated at a later date,” especially since police personnel “need an official designation to receive their salaries, so Suwayda cannot remain isolated from the state’s overall administrative structure.”

Civil peace

The former Assad regime long portrayed itself as a “protector of minorities,” like Suwayda’s Druze, and threatened the province with “chaos” if it stood against it. Over time, an atmosphere of mistrust or suspicion grew between the province and other segments of Syrian society, though Suwayda supported the revolution in 2011 before adopting a position of neutrality. 

Unlike many parts of the country, Suwayda never came under opposition control, despite its strong anti-regime protest movement that began in August 2023. The Druze retained a degree of autonomy from the regime during the war, notably benefiting from a de facto exemption from conscription.

Despite everything Suwayda went through over the past 14 years, “civil peace has never faced the kind of collapse that is happening now,” said activist Samer Salloum, a member of the executive committee of Suwayda’s longstanding protest movement. He accused “all parties of contributing to obstructing the agreement and local stability—whether the factions affiliated with the defunct regime in Daraa and Suwayda, or the Syrian government itself.” 

Last week’s sectarian military confrontations in southern Syria peaked on April 30, when clashes broke out between a military convoy of Suwayda factions heading to support Druze groups in Reef Dimashq, and Bedouin armed groups from Daraa and Suwayda, which are aligned with the new Syrian administration. 

When the Suwayda convoy reached Baraq, a village on the Damascus-Suwayda highway that is administratively part of Daraa province, locals from the village blocked the path of the convoy and fighting broke out before other pro-Damascus groups arrived in the area, according to journalist Hamza al-Fahid, who covered these developments on the ground. 

These confrontations opened a wide door to further clashes between Druze forces and members of Bedouin tribes in Daraa and Suwayda. Renewed fighting broke out just two hours after Druze religious leadership announced it reached a preliminary agreement with Damascus on May 1. 

That day, local Druze factions clashed with unidentified groups that attempted to advance into the villages of Labin and Haran, in the western Suwayda countryside. Artillery shelling and heavy machine gun fire continued for several hours before the attacking forces withdrew. 

“General security and defense ministry officials confirmed these attacks were caused by outlaw groups based in al-Lajat and nearby areas,” Suwayda 24 reported, citing unnamed sources. Al-Lajat is a rugged area of eastern Daraa province, directly adjacent to the western Suwayda countryside. “Government forces are expanding their deployment along the administrative borders between Daraa and Suwayda to prevent these attacks,” the outlet said.

Over the days following the Suwayda agreement, local groups in the eastern Daraa countryside exchanged shelling and artillery fire with others in the western Suwayda countryside, killing and injuring civilians and causing others to flee their homes. 

Coinciding with that, “videos spread of a faction named Euphrates Volcano, showing it shelling Suwayda villages and the al-Hijri militia, as they put it, from Daraa,” Salloum said. “Someone is trying to obstruct the agreement.”

“The faction is not from the south–how did it reach the area with its weapons? Who allowed them to pass?” al-Salloum said. Damascus is ultimately responsible for controlling security and preventing such movements, he added. 

However, local journalist al-Fahid denied “the arrival of the Euphrates Volcano faction,” saying “the factions present in the south are from Daraa and al-Lajat.” 

“After the clashes on the first day. General security arrived in the area, set up checkpoints between the two provinces, and entered al-Sura [al-Kabira] village in Suwayda, where they stayed for two days until the latest agreement was signed and it was handed over to the police,” al-Fahid said. 

In the same context, journalist Muhammad Adnan, who is from al-Lajat and lives in Jordan, warned that the clashes and mutual shelling should not be understood as a “civil conflict between the Druze and the [Bedouin] tribes.” The clashes “originated from unidentified parties, and this confirms there are parties that seek to drag the area into sectarian and regional strife through media escalation and incitement…to thwart any truce or understanding.” 

Beyond local incitement, Adnan said, there are “regional interventions working to deepen the crisis: primarily Israeli efforts to thwart any internal consensus in Syria and prevent the stability of the newborn state.” He accused Tel Aviv of “presenting itself as a supporter of the Druze in Syria, in an attempt to create a rift between members of the sect and the Syrian state and other components of the Syrian people.” 

Internal tensions

Suwayda province is experiencing internal tensions between the Druze and members of Bedouin tribes. Sectarian violence has affected both communities, with private property and religious shrines vandalized. 

Violence against the Druze, as a religious minority, makes more headlines, one Bedouin resident of Suwayda city said. He complained of “harassment at checkpoints” in the city, adding “our cell phones are searched, and tribe members’ movement in the streets of the city is restricted by [armed] groups affiliated with Sheikh al-Hijri.”

Bedouins “are staying home for fear of abuses at checkpoints,” the source told Syria Direct on condition of anonymity. He said his community had called on al-Hijri to “remove the checkpoints at the entrances and exits of our neighborhoods, but he did not respond.” However, he denied some reports of Bedouin neighborhoods being under siege. 

“We and the Bedouins are family,” activist Salloum said. “We have lived together in peace for hundreds of years.” He pointed to solidarity shown by Suwayda residents in recent days, noting “we have taken to the street and protected their mosques from any attack.” 

In an effort to mend the rift, young people from Suwayda organized visits to their Bedouin neighbors in Suwayda city to express their rejection of any abuses and call for the perpetrators to be held accountable, particularly after a video emerged of an armed group attacking one tribe member in the al-Maqous area of Suwayda city. 

In the same vein, higher-level contacts are underway “between notables, clan sheikhs, the Sheikhs of Reason and some military commanders, with the goal of maintaining restraint and avoiding escalation,” journalist Adnan said. He stressed the need to “involve members of the tribes in drafting any agreement, as they are an integral part of Suwayda.”

In turn, Muflah al-Sabra, commander of the Southern Tribes Gathering military faction, denied his group was involved in clashes with Druze factions, “with the exception of that which took place outside the province in the village of Baraq, and intercepted a convoy trying to reach Sahnaya.” 

Al-Sabra accused the Euphrates Volcano faction of “inciting sectarian conflict with its videos,” saying his faction had no connection to the group. 

Bedouin villages have also been subjected to “shelling of unknown origin, leading to the displacement of residents,” al-Sabra said. He called on the Damascus government to “do justice to the tribal communities in Suwayda, and intervene to stop the harassment our people are facing under the pretext that they support the government.” He expressed his frustration at the “marginalization of tribe members in the recent agreement, despite them being an integral component of the province.” 

In response, military expert al-Absi said “the current agreement is preliminary, and excludes no one. The state does not conclude an agreement on an ethnic, racial or sectarian basis, but rather on the basis of full citizenship.” 

Will the agreement hold? 

The Damascus-Suwayda agreement faces many challenges, including “foreign and Israeli interference and the proliferation of regime remnants trying to find a foothold in these disputes to escape accountability,” al-Absi said, alongside “the presence of some ambitious people seeking personal glory at the expense of the public interest.” Still, he believes “its chances of success are high.” 

“The government is aware of these challenges, and has measures to preserve and repair civil peace, build trust and create a strong, united Syria with all citizens equal before the law and in rights and duties,” he said. 

However, “the continued presence of armed groups outside the law, many [members] of which have criminal records during their service in Assad’s army and the intelligence branches, poses a major obstacle to implementing the agreement and an effective entry into the state,” journalist Adnan said.  

Therefore, if the parties to the agreement fail to protect it, “we will be heading for a bloodbath,” activist Salloum said, adding the agreement “must hold.” 

This report was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.