The kidnapping of a greengrocer: that is what the violence in the South Syria of the past few days started. A group of armed Bedouin robbed the young market vendor of his truck on the highway to Damascus and held him imprisoned for a few hours. This incident led to an over and over of attacks and abductions between Druzzian militias and local Bedouin tribes.
The outburst of violence – which took place in the province of Sweida at the border with Jordan – cost more than 130 people according to a first estimate. After intervention of the Syrian army, a ceasefire was announced on Tuesday.
The unrest of recent days underlines how difficult it is for the new Syria to forge another of a fragmented country. Both the militias and persistent lawlessness in Syria are remains of more than thirteen years of civil war. Minority groups-such as the Druzen-distrust the government of former al-Qaeda leader Ahmed al-Sharaa and therefore refuse to lay down the weapons.
Which armed groups are all still in Syria? And how do they relate to the new regime? NRC Set them in a row.
An eyewitness recorded how armed men on the back of a truck with a Druze flag fired in Sweida, released Syria on Sunday 13 July.
Reuters
Druzzian militias
Seven months after the fall of the Assad regime and the appointment of Al-Sharaa as the new leader of Syria, the Sweida province is still largely under the control of Druzzian battle groups. “The absence of state institutions, in particular military and security institutions, is one of the main reasons for the persistent tensions,” written The Minister of the Interior, Anas Khattab, on social media this week.
The Syrian Druzen themselves, so far, often had nothing to do with Israel’s interference
Although Druzzian religious leaders had called for local battle groups to lay down the weapons, fighting broke out on Tuesday when the Syrian army entered the Sweida city to restore peace.
The situation further escalated because the Israeli Air Force subsequently carried out bombing on Syrian government forces. With that attack, Israel wanted to “protect the Druzen for the Syrian regime,” said a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In recent months, the Israeli government has more often set itself up as the patron of Druzzian communities in southern Syria, including to prepare the Israeli sphere of influence on the spot.
Military bases and tourist tours: how Israel occupies more and more Syrian land
For example, Israel-that after the Hamas attack of 7 October, hopes to keep his neighbors more than ever-to keep Syrian government forces away from its limits. The Syrian Druzen themselves often had to have nothing of Israel’s interference. This makes it even harder for Damascus to get a grip on the south of the country.
Kurdish battle groups
An even bigger problem awaits the Syrian government in the east of the country, an oil and gas-rich area that is in the hands of Kurdish battle groups (SDF) after the civil war. Although the government in Damascus agreed with SDF in March to regain control over the east, negotiations now seem to get stuck.
A killed warrior of the Druze militia lies on the ground, while Syrian government forces are used in the background in the village of Mazraa, on the outskirts of the city of Sweida. Fighting broke out between Sunni Bedouin clans and Druzemilities, in southern Syria.
Photo Ghaith Alsayed/ AP
A top between the two parties was broken by the United States and France on the Kurdish requirement last week to maintain a certain degree of independence. For example, SDF does not want to be completely absorbed in the Syrian army, but if a separate army unit continues to operate independently in the east of the country. This to the great frustration of the Syrian government and American and French negotiators.
Analysts warn that violence is lurking here too. Various Arab tribal leaders in the SDF area-former allies of the Kurds in the fight against Islamic State-spoke out louder and louder in recent months against Kurdish ‘occupation’ of their country and are allegedly looking for rapprochement with Damascus. But in the case of a military conflict, SDF – with its tens of thousands of fighters – will not be easily put aside.
Pro-assad groups
Groups of militants who have ties with the former Assad regime carried out a coordinated attack last March on government forces around the city of Latakia and the rest of the Syrian coastal area. This then led to an outburst of violence in which thousands of militants and armed citizens traveled to the coast for a gigantic revenge action against the relatively large group of Alawites in the region. More than 1,600 people were killed.
(Some) government forces also participated in the murder, which further damaged the trust of minorities in the new regime.
Turkish influence
The militias that Syria did have managed to include in the national army include the battle groups supported by Turkey from the north of the country. These militias-rather united in the SNL coalition-are officially dissolved and are now divisions under the control of the Ministry of Defense, says Syria expert Charles Lister in his Syria Weekly-Podcast.
“The integration is still ongoing,” said Lister, “but there is progress. We see that these units no longer operate as independently as before.” Although commandants of these units still enjoy a lot more autonomy than their counterparts at other army divisions, according to Lister, there is now clearly more there being an ‘command structure’ that is controlled from Damascus.
What helped with the inclusion of Turkey-supported militias in the Syrian army is the traditionally good bond between the new Syrian leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa and the Turkish government. At the same time, the Turkish influence on the battle groups has not completely disappeared. Turkey still pays the salaries of the former SNL fighters, but now does so through the Syrian Ministry of Defense.