Syrias Druze fearful after deadly attacks on Damascus suburbs

Rami lived through more than a decade of war in Syria, yet had never picked up a gun.

That all changed this week. 

Deadly clashes between pro-government fighters and local Druze gunmen ignited on Tuesday, in part over a now-debunked audio clip of a Druze cleric allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

Rami, a 27-year-old Druze activist and former Red Crescent worker, feared his community was in grave danger. He decided to join his friends on the frontline, borrowing one of their weapons. “It was truly frightening,” he told Middle East Eye.

The pro-government fighters allegedly killed dozens of people in the Damascus suburbs of Jaramana and Ashrafiet Sahnaya, towns that have large Druze populations, as well as along the Damascus-Sweida highway. 

New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch

Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters

Among the dead is the mayor of Ashrafiet Sahnaya, Hussam Warour, killed by gunmen who stormed his house on Wednesday night, according to local news site Suwayda 24.

Israel, which has sought to intervene in Syria in purported support of the Druze, also launched several air strikes on Ashrafiet Sahnaya on Wednesday, against what it said were “operatives near Damascus who had attacked Druze civilians”. 

Syria’s foreign ministry said it rejected “foreign intervention” and it was committed “to protect all components of the Syrian people … including the children of the honourable Druze community”.

'Fear and anxiety' among Druze

The bloodshed has stoked fears that minorities such as the Druze, an ethno-religious community, are not safe under the rule of Syria’s new government, which is dominated by Sunni former rebels.

Among the dead were some of Rami’s friends.

“I know that carrying a weapon is wrong… and I don’t want to own one,” Rami said from his home in Jaramana. “But everything changed.”

'While talking with you, I found out that more of my friends were killed in Sweida and Sahnaya'

- Rami, Druze activist

Druze Syrians told Middle East Eye they are now living in “fear and anxiety”, with many now staying indoors on Thursday fearing further fighting. Druze leaders and government officials have managed to calm the situation, for now.

The killings come just weeks after gunmen aligned with Syria’s new government waged massacres in towns and villages along the coast, home to the Alawi religious minority group.

Syria’s longtime autocrat Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted by rebels on 8 December, is himself an Alawi from the coastal region and employed many Alawis in his oppressive security forces, leading some to blame the community for Assad’s crimes. 

Activist groups have put the death toll in those attacks between 1,000 and 2,000 people.

The Druze are found across the Levant. They adhere to an offshoot of Islam that emerged in medieval Egypt and live primarily in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

Historically, Syria’s Druze have kept some distance from the central state, even before the Assad dynasty and today’s new government led by former rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa. They live primarily in Sweida, the country’s southernmost governorate along the border with Jordan, as well as a smattering of Damascus suburbs further north. 

A voicenote falsely attributed to a Druze cleric, in which the speaker insults the Prophet Muhammad, spread widely on social media in recent days, and allegedly sparked the initial clashes in Jaramana.

Though the fighting there died down by Thursday, residents “are still scared to go out and about”, Rami said. Two of his friends were killed on Tuesday in the Jaramana clashes, he said. 

“And while talking with you, I found out that more of my friends were killed in Sweida and Sahnaya,” added Rami, who asked to use a pseudonym fearing reprisals for speaking to the media.

“We feel scared. And we feel disappointed.”

‘We didn’t expect this’

Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, the spiritual leader of Syria’s Druze, called the killings an “unjustified genocidal attack” in a statement, urging international forces to “immediately intervene to preserve peace”.

Wadah Azzam, 43, lives in Sweida’s provincial capital, about an hour and a half from Damascus. Even there, residents are tense, he said. 

Azzam and his friends and neighbours have been “asking ourselves how we can protect ourselves from an attack”, he told MEE.

“There is fear and anxiety.” 

Tobias Lang, an expert on the Druze of the Levant and director of the Austrian Centre for Peace, said for now Sweida remains relatively isolated from Sharaa’s new government

The province also has its own slew of well-armed, locally powerful militias, including the Men of Dignity and Sheikhs of Dignity. 

The Damascus countryside, where this week’s clashes took place, is different. 

“Those towns are largely mixed and surrounded by Sunni towns,” with a strong potential support base for Sharaa’s new government, Lang said. The Dignity factions, though powerful in Sweida, “do not have as strong a presence in rural Damascus,” he added.

History of revolt

When rebel fighters defeated Assad’s forces late last year, Druze armed factions also took part in the fight in their own, Druze-majority governorate of Sweida, as well as neighbouring Daraa alongside rebels groups. 

Fighters from the Men of Dignity and Sheikhs of Dignity groups freed people held in local prisons in the days leading up to Assad’s fall. 

They also drove soldiers from roadside checkpoints and military sites. 

Sweida had been freed by its own fighters and not Sharaa’s rebels, and it is still unclear how exactly those Druze forces might be incorporated into the new state. 

They and other residents of Druze areas say they’ve been longtime opponents of the Assad government, similar to Syria’s new rulers.

During the war, many Druze in Jaramana became activists, helping people in the neighbouring districts under siege receive food and other aid supplies at the risk of their own lives. 

Some Druze residents of the town ended up in Assad’s notorious torture prisons for their part in helping their besieged neighbours. 

Even as a teenager at the beginning of Syria’s war in 2011 and 2012, Rami was part of that relief effort. 

“Over time, I came to know many of the people who helped smuggle medical supplies,” he recalls. 

But after this week’s attacks, he says he feels a sense of “abandonment”.

middleeasteye.net