Is Damascus reaping the fruits of local factions’ campaign against military security-linked ‘gangs’ in Suwayda?

PARIS — At the beginning of October, local factions in Syria’s southern Suwayda province announced the resumption of their military campaign against regime-linked groups they described as “gangs,” this time targeting a group within the provincial capital. 

In a statement on October 2, local factions accused a military group led by Muhannad and Rami Mazhar in Suwayda city of having a “track record of murder, abduction and prostitution” in cooperation with “corrupt” regime officers. The statement also accused the group of “distributing contraband” and said those who try to protect members of the group would “be treated as if one of them.” 

The group led by Muhannad and Rami Mazhar has ties to military security, and was also associated with the Dawn Forces group led by Raji Falhout, which was eliminated by a number of Suwayda factions in a military campaign this past July against regime-affiliated groups in the Druze-majority province.

Today, while Suwayda factions continue their military campaign, the regime is moving to impose new settlements in Suwayda through the Sheikhs of Reason—the top Druze spiritual authorities in the province—and other religious and social leaders. The settlements put Suwaydans who have not completed their mandatory military service on a path to enlist.

Socioreligious cover

Following the October 2 statement, a military operation was scheduled to begin against the Mazhar group within 48 hours. October 4 came and went, and no operation has begun. Still, it “is coming,” according to Murhij al-Jarmani, the commander of the Liwa al-Jabal faction that is one of the groups participating. He told Syria Direct the planned operation was delayed for “internal military reasons, aimed at exhausting all peaceful solutions.” 

Al-Jarmani said the early October deadline was set “to socially legitimize the military action, to make the community aware of it,” while also giving the factions the “opportunity to turn back and submit to our demands before bloodshed takes place.” 

He called for Rami and Muhannad Mazhar to “turn themselves in for investigation, hand over their weapons and vehicles and cut ties with the gangs in order to avoid military action.” The commander added they should “leave Syria permanently, a punishment our ancestors used instead of killing someone who committed a grave mistake.”

But the Men of Dignity Movement, Suwayda’s largest military faction and which participated in previous operations against the Raji Falhout’s Dawn Forces and the al-Fahd Forces led by Salim Humeid, has not issued any statement regarding a possible military operation in the heart of Suwayda city. 

Abu Taymour, the head of the Men of Dignity’s media wing, said the faction has not gotten involved in the operation because it does not have a “religious, social, familial cover,” which, if ignored, could lead to a “major crisis.” 

He stressed the importance of “authorization from the people regarding the launch of a campaign in the city” because “any military operation could result in civilian victims and private property damage, and without social solidarity there could be a negative reaction.” 

Read more: After Falhout: Suwayda residents and factions expand action against Damascus-backed ‘gangs’

These concerns are bolstered by a statement released on October 3 in the name of “leaders of the Suwayda city factions,” known as the “City People’s Assembly,” who pledged to use force against the factions that issued a deadline for Muhannad and Rami Mazhar to turn themselves in. 

The statement said both men “declared repentance,” and that the Mazhar family said a number of their sons who had made mistakes “declared their repentance before the family, and handed their weapons in to the family council.” It added they are “ready to pay” if any party proves wrongdoing. 

In turn, Emir Louay al-Atrash, a descendant of the Druze nationalist leader Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, said in a statement issued by Dar al-Ara, one of the decision-making centers in Suwayda, that armed mobilization in Suwayda city endangers “innocent lives” and called on “the state” to hold those in violation of the law accountable.

Al-Jaramani questioned the validity of the “city factions” statement, saying “the families of the city do not publish statements like this, and if they did, they would put their name on it.” In his view, “Muhannad and Rami are trying to deceive us with such a statement.” His own family, the al-Jaramani family, would have been one of the signatories to any statement, he said, “because we are one of the first families of the city.”

“If a real statement were issued by the city’s families calling to stop the campaign, we would abide by that,” al-Jaramani added, stressing the factions would not enter “without the consent of the people.”

The Sheikhs of Reason divided?

The social and geographical distribution of Suwayda’s highest religious authority figures, the Sheikhs of Reason—Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, Sheikh Hamoud al-Hanawi and Sheikh Yousef Jerboa—plays a major role in shaping the socioreligious cover Suwayda’s factions seek. 

But while al-Hijri has sided with the factions and their supporters taking part in military operations against Damascus-linked groups in the province, al-Hanawi and Jerboa have taken a stance closer to the Syrian regime. This discrepancy makes it more difficult for the factions to obtain a mandate from the people of the province. 

The split between the Sheikhs of Reason appeared clearly when al-Hijri called on Suwayda’s factions to eliminate military security-linked groups in the province this past summer, which groups such as the Men of Dignity considered a religious mandate. But al-Hanawi and Jerboa did not adopt the same stance, although the three are part of the same religious institution. 

In a separate incident, al-Hijri did not attend a meeting between Syrian regime security officials and social and religious leaders—including al-Hanawi and Jerboa—held in Suwayda city on September 29 to discuss security and the living situation in the province. 

Commenting on that, Men of Dignity spokesperson Abu Taymour attributed al-Hijri’s position contrary to the other two Sheikhs to the “presence of the Raji Falhout and Slim Humeid gangs in the Qanawat and Ateel areas, which are religiously and socially affiliated” with al-Hijri’s authority. 

This is why, he said, al-Hijri called for a public mobilization in July “after gathering a number of notables, and issued a statement as a religious mandate, [saying] they are the ones who will shoulder any mistakes during the military action, from innocent victims to private property damage.” 

But in Suwayda city, Sheikh Yousef Jerboa, who has a stance closer to the regime, is the primary authority. So “when the Sheikhs of Reason do not respond to the people’s demand, any military action there could lead to negative results,” Abu Taymour said. 

Al-Jaramani, however, cited al-Hijri’s statement issued at the beginning of the campaign, and said “we have a directive from the spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat to eliminate all the gangs, and even if the family has not made their blood fair game, the mountain has.”

What does the regime want? 

On October 6, the Syrian regime opened a settlement center in Suwayda city in the Seventh of April Hall. The settlement offered at the new center is no different from previous Russian-sponsored settlements, which were launched at the beginning of 2021.

Military deserters and men who have not completed mandatory military and reserve service, as well as individuals wanted for security cases, are eligible to settle their status. Those wanted on the basis of personal allegations are not included. The settlement does not require weapons to be surrendered. 

For those who sign up, after completing the settlement process each individual who has not completed military service or deserted is given a six-month grace period. After that, he must turn himself in and perform military service, according to Suwayda 24, a local network covering the province. 

The latest settlement is the result of a meeting between a regime security delegation and religious and social bodies in Suwayda in September. The regime delegation was headed by the Minister of Interior, Major General Mohammad Khaled al-Rahmoun, as well as the head of the General Intelligence Directorate, Major General Hussam Louka.

The regime delegation presented security solutions for the province, mainly extending state authority by activating the role of law enforcement by police and criminal security agencies, deploying checkpoints, strengthening the role of the judiciary and opening a settlement center, Suwayda 24 quoted Louka as saying. The General Intelligence Directorate head stressed it was difficult to impose safety and security “without withdrawing unauthorized weapons, dismantling the armed groups and seizing irregular vehicles.” 

Responding to that, Abu Taymour of the Men of Dignity thought it unlikely that carrying out a settlement process would improve the security situation in Suwayda. He stressed the need to “improve living conditions and secure citizens’ basic livelihoods before proposing empty security solutions.” He accused Damascus of continuing to use the same security solutions it has employed since 2011. 

In turn, al-Jarmani said the September meeting came “following our victory over the state gangs” to “strip weapons from the youth [members of local factions] and conscript them into military service.” He believed the regime sought to find someone to rule Suwayda “by force,” such as Raji Falhout, “but failed.” 

Al-Jarmani claimed that, at the meeting, when attendees called on Damascus to improve living conditions and bring fuel into Suwayda, “the delegation replied that joining the military was necessary to liberate the oil wells from the Americans.” The regime also transferred the Suwayda security file from the Military Intelligence Directorate to Louka, the head of the General Intelligence Directorate, “and the two are no different,” he said. 

The Liwa al-Jabal commander said Damascus has “reduced gasoline allocations for the province and is trying to raise the price of food coming in,” which he considered an attempt “to keep us busy with making a living so it can devote itself to restructuring its gangs again.” 

Recent moves by Damascus in Suwayda reveal a gap between it and the province’s population, Abu Khaldoun (a pseudonym), a retired teacher in the province, told Syria Direct. Security to him means “realizing safety and security,” he said, but “what the regime is doing is repression.” 

Abu Khaldoun, 63, added that “the gangs that spread corruption in Suwayda carry regime-issued security IDs, and work with its approval.” As he sees it, “the security situation improved after the Falhout and Salim gangs were eliminated.” 

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