Clashes Resume in Suweida Between Syrian Government Forces, Druze: State Media

Syrian government forces take aim from a rooftop amid clashes in the southern city of Suweida, Syria, on July 16, 2025. BAKR ALKASEM/AFP via Getty Images

Clashes resumed over the weekend in Syria’s Suweida Province between government forces and armed members of the local Druze community, according to Syria’s state-run SANA news agency.

“After confronting an organized attack of al-Hijri [Druze] militias in Suweida province on Internal Security positions ... security forces regained control over these positions,” SANA quoted a security source as saying on Aug. 3.

On the same day, Syria’s state-run Ekhbariya media outlet claimed that “outlaw groups” had attacked government positions in Suweida in breach of a cease-fire reached in July between government forces and local Druze fighters.

Citing security sources, Ekhbariya further reported that the alleged cease-fire violations had left one security officer dead and a number of others injured.

It noted that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who came to power in January, was urging all parties involved to adhere to the terms of the cease-fire deal.

The Epoch Times could not independently verify the reports.

Suweida is home to the region’s largest concentration of Druze, a minority religious sect that adheres to an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Sizable Druze communities also exist in neighboring Israel and Lebanon.

Violence first erupted in Suweida in mid-July, when pro-government Bedouin tribesmen clashed with local Druze community members.

In response, the government quickly dispatched security forces to the area to quell the unrest. However, soon clashes broke out between government forces and Druze fighters in which scores of the latter were reportedly killed.

At least 18 government personnel were also killed in the fighting, according to the Syrian Defense Ministry.

After three days of clashes, Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra declared a cease-fire in Suweida following consultations with local Druze community leaders.

However, on the same day, Hikmat al-Hijri, an influential local Druze leader, accused government forces of violating the truce and opening fire on local residents.

In a video message released at the time, al-Hijri called on local Druze fighters to resist government forces “with all means available.”

Israel also carried out strikes on Syrian government positions—at one point hitting the defense ministry’s headquarters in the capital of Damascus—with the stated aim of protecting the country’s Druze minority.

In a report published on Aug. 4, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the number of people killed in Suweida since mid-July at more than 1,500.

The figure, which The Epoch Times could not independently verify, included 720 residents killed in armed clashes, in artillery strikes, or by extrajudicial executions.

More than 430 government personnel were killed over the same period, including 15 killed by Israeli airstrikes, according to the Syrian Observatory report.

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on the Syrian Defense Ministry's headquarters in Damascus, Syria, on July 16, 2025. Khalil Ashawi/Reuters

Minorities Fear Persecution

There have been other cases of sectarian violence since the regime of President Bashar al-Assad was ousted from power by a Turkey-backed rebel offensive in December 2024.

In March, Sunni militants in the coastal Latakia Province massacred hundreds of Alawites, a Syrian religious minority from which the Assad family hails.

The following month saw fierce clashes between Sunni gunmen and armed Druze residents of Jaramana, Syria, a mixed Druze and Christian town located southeast of the capital.

That crisis was eventually diffused after Damascus sent security forces to the area, and consultations were held between government officials and local Druze leaders.

In June, at least 20 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Damascus church—an attack that Syria’s post-Assad government blamed on the ISIS terrorist group.

Along with serving as president, al-Sharaa (formerly known as Mohammed al-Golani) also leads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militant group, which spearheaded the 2024 offensive against the Assad regime.

Al-Sharaa and his hardline Sunni-Islamist government have repeatedly pledged to protect religious minorities.

Reuters contributed to this report.