Syria’s Druze fighters reshape frontlines in face of intensifying pressure

Israeli spiritual leader of sect meets US envoy to seek support for Sweida community

Tom Barrack with Israeli Druze spiritual leader Muwaffaq Tarif. Photo: US ambassador to Turkey

The spiritual leader of Israel's Druze has met a senior US diplomat to push for the plight of the sect's followers in neighbouring Syria.

It comes as Washington seeks to contain violence between the new government in Damascus and the country's minorities.

Muwaffaq Tarif said he asked Tom Barrack, US envoy to Syria and Turkey and a confidant of President Donald Trump, to open a humanitarian corridor to the mostly Druze province of Sweida, during the meeting that took place on Tuesday. Mr Barrack said he had a “warm and informative” meeting with Mr Tarif in Paris.

Sweida has been surrounded by government troops and auxiliaries for the past five weeks. Israel launched strikes during the violence that it said were to protect the Druze.

The Druze are a small sect with only several hundred thousand members in Syria. Their survival is seen as a barometer of the fate of other minorities under the new authorities who took power in December after ousting the regime of Bashar Al Assad.

Mr Tarif is the closest Druze figure outside Syria to Hikmat Al Hijri, the most senior of Syria's Druze spiritual leaders, who has defied Damascus by demanding a civil constitution and describing the authorities as extremists. He also demanded that security troops in Sweida be drawn from the local communities.

Here is a breakdown of the military dynamics among the Druze in Sweida:

Military Council expands grip

Although the former regime had sought to placate the Druze, the sect mounted a civil disobedience movement in Sweida. Protests and sit ins were protected by an array of militias, who coalesced around Mr Al Hijri after the government's offensive on Sweida last month.

Before the recent attack, Sweida had about 4,000 Druze fighters, mainly divided into three groups. The largest remains a coalition known as the Military Council, allied with Mr Al Hijri and led by Tareq Al Shoufi, an officer who had defected from the Assad army.

Two smaller groups aligned with the government as it sought local allies to help it take over Sweida. The first group comprises remnants of a militia called Men of Dignity and led by Laith Al Balous. Mr Al Balous is the son of a Druze figure who had defied Mr Al Assad and was assassinated in 2015. The second is Suleiman Abdul Baqi, chief of a small Druze militia, also allied with the government.

Mr Al Balous handed over a belt of villages west of Sweida to government troops as they commenced their operation on June 13-14. However, mass killings of Druze civilians eroded support for the two men, whose armed loyalists have dwindled to a maximum of several hundred. The rest have joined the Military Council, according to sources in Jordan. Sweida borders the kingdom, which also has a small Druze community.

Hundreds of Druze personnel in the former Syrian security forces, who had kept a low profile in Sweida, also joined the Military Council. Hizeb Al Liwa, another militia, has also allied with the group.

A rapid, mass armament movement has also started, with members of the sect gathering in the thousands.

“Even the women have taken up arms in Sweida,” one of the sources said. “The Druze have seen how the government tried to overwhelm them with tens of thousands. They want to be prepared for the next time.”

Al Hijri's power enhanced

The mass militarisation of Sweida has transformed Mr Al Hijri into a spiritual leader and a political decision-maker who commands the loyalty of thousands under arms, and a sect that largely sees itself fighting for survival.

A confidant of Mr Al Hijri said that he sees no alternative to militarisation and continuing to seek international protection for the sect. He highlighted Mr Al Hijri's willingness to alienate Lebanon's Druze leader Walid Joumblatt as evidence of how convinced he is of the “existential threat” to the community. Mr Joumblatt has called on Syria's Druze to accommodate the new government and vehemently denounced the Israeli intervention.

Syria's Druze community “is in mourning but everyone understands that after what Sweida has been through, that there can be no return to Damascus with the current government in place", the confidant said. He said Mr Tarif has been essential to explaining Mr Al Hijri's stance, given the operations by Damascus.