Dozens Killed in Fresh Bout of Sectarian Violence in Syria’s Sweida, Govt Says

Clashes erupted on July 13 between armed local residents and Bedouin tribesmen in Sweida’s Al-Muqawas district, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

A masked fighter walks with a machine gun in Damascus's covered market on March 29, 2025. LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images

At least 30 people have been killed—and scores injured—in a fresh outbreak of sectarian violence in Sweida, a predominantly Druze region of southern Syria, the country’s interior ministry said.

In a statement, the ministry attributed the clashes to the “absence of relevant official institutions, leading to worsening chaos, a collapse of the security situation, and the local community’s inability to contain the crisis.”

“This has increased the number of casualties and poses a direct threat to civil peace in the region,” the statement said, according to Syria’s state-run SANA news agency.

According to SANA, the interior ministry, in coordination with the defense ministry, “will begin direct intervention in the area to end the conflict and impose security.”

“We urge all local parties to cooperate with internal security forces, exercise restraint, and support efforts for de-escalation,” the interior ministry stated.

In a separate statement, carried by SANA on July 14, the defense ministry said that it had deployed “specialized military units to the affected areas.”

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), clashes first erupted on July 13 between armed local residents—presumably Druze—and Bedouin tribesmen in Sweida’s Al-Muqawas district.

Days earlier, a local man was accosted and beaten at a makeshift checkpoint manned by tribesmen, eliciting an angry response from Sweida residents, the UK-based rights watchdog reported.

The situation escalated on July 13 when tribesmen set up another checkpoint in Al-Muqawas and detained several locals, according to the SOHR, citing local sources.

“Negotiations by local dignitaries are underway to defuse the tension and set the detainees free,” it stated.

The SOHR later reported that the defense ministry had dispatched “large military convoys” to Sweida, “including various weapons and dozens of soldiers to reinforce security checkpoints after they came under attack.”

Some of these forces are “already involved in the fighting against Druze gunmen,” it said, putting the total death toll at 37, including two children.

The Epoch Times could not independently verify the reports.

Alawites attempt to cross into Lebanon following the mass killing of their coreligionists in western Syria, on March 11, 2025. (Mohamed Azakir/Reuters）

Post-Assad Violence

It was not the first such case of sectarian violence in Syria since the long-ruling regime of President Bashar al-Assad was ousted from power in late 2024.

April saw fierce clashes between Sunni gunmen and armed Druze residents of Jaramana, a mixed Druze and Christian town located southeast of Damascus.

The violence was triggered by the murder of a defense ministry official by unidentified gunmen at a checkpoint near the town and a separate attack on a local police station, according to reports.

The crisis was eventually diffused after Damascus sent military reinforcements to the area, and consultations were held between security officials and local community leaders.

In December 2024, Syria’s Assad regime was overthrown by a Turkey-backed rebel offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a militant group with previous ties to ISIS and Al Qaeda.

HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa now serves as the country’s interim president.

As HTS seeks to cement its grip on power, fears of religious persecution have mounted among Syrian minority groups, including the Druze, Christians, and Alawites.

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

In June, more than 20 Christian worshippers were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a church in Damascus—an attack that the new Syrian leadership blamed on the ISIS terrorist group.

On July 14, The Times of Israel reported that Israel’s military had conducted strikes on “several tanks” deployed near the village of Sami in Sweida.

As of publication time, it remained unclear whether the reported Israeli strikes were related to the recent flare-up of sectarian unrest in the area.

Israel, which sent troops into southern Syria after Assad’s ouster, has previously offered to “protect” Syria’s Druze—who adhere to an offshoot of Shiite Islam—from the country’s new Sunni Islamist rulers.

Reuters contributed to this report.