July 17, 2025 — At least 248 people have been killed in the southern Syrian province of Sweida following days of intense violence that pitted Druze fighters, Bedouin tribes, and Syrian government forces against each other in one of the deadliest escalations in the region in years.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the death toll includes 92 Druze, of whom 28 were civilians. Disturbingly, 21 civilians were executed summarily, allegedly by government troops, after the Syrian military intervened in the unrest.
Clashes erupted on Sunday after the kidnapping of a Druze vegetable merchant, which quickly escalated into tit-for-tat abductions between Druze militias and Sunni Bedouin tribes. As tensions grew, government forces deployed to Sweida city on Tuesday, declaring their mission was to stop the fighting. However, local sources and Druze factions claim that the Syrian military sided with the Bedouins, intensifying the conflict instead of deescalating it.
“The Syrian army’s entry wasn’t to restore calm—it was to choose a side,” a Druze commander told local reporters. “They participated in executions and allowed the looting to continue.”
The Observatory said the fighting claimed the lives of 138 Syrian security personnel and 18 Bedouin tribal fighters, alongside the Druze casualties. The Suwayda 24 local news network reported that entire neighborhoods came under heavy shelling, including the use of mortars and heavy artillery by the government.
An AFP correspondent on the ground described scenes of devastation, with bodies of civilians and fighters scattered in streets and homes engulfed in flames. “Smoke columns rose from multiple neighborhoods, and explosions echoed every few minutes,” he reported. “Some of the dead were fighters in civilian clothes still holding rifles.”
The Syrian defense ministry, in a statement on Wednesday, said its forces were responding to attacks by “outlaw groups” and that they would “continue to engage fire sources inside the city.”
But eyewitnesses paint a starkly different picture. Residents accused the government of allowing and even participating in massacres, burnings of homes, and looting of businesses, particularly targeting Druze neighborhoods.
The Druze minority, a secretive ethnoreligious group, has long had a complicated relationship with Damascus. During the Syrian civil war, many Druze communities maintained autonomy or neutrality. However, recent tensions have reignited old grievances, especially after the December 2024 overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, which ushered in a new Islamist-leaning government.
While initial negotiations between the new rulers and Druze representatives hinted at possible integration of Druze militias into the armed forces, those talks have stalled. Now, the gap has widened into outright confrontation.
The current fighting is the worst since April and May, when clashes between Druze fighters and government troops near Damascus and in Sweida left over 100 dead. But unlike those earlier skirmishes, this week’s violence involved summary executions, heavy shelling, and what locals describe as a “government-backed pogrom.”
Israel, which has historically pledged to protect the Druze across the border, issued a stern warning on Wednesday. A government spokesperson said that Damascus must halt its assault on Druze areas or face military retaliation. “We have made it clear before: the presence of Syrian regime forces in southern Syria near Druze communities is unacceptable,” the spokesperson stated.
As of Wednesday night, intermittent shelling continued in Sweida, and fears remain high of further escalation. Civilian displacement has already begun, with hundreds fleeing into the surrounding hills.
Human rights groups are calling for immediate international attention and investigations into potential war crimes committed during the conflict. The United Nations has yet to issue a formal statement.
For Sweida’s civilians—trapped between tribal militias, sectarian tensions, and a brutal state response—peace remains a distant hope.
