File image.
The death toll from the battle in the southern Syrian governorate of al-Suwayda has exceeded 1,000, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on July 23.
The battle broke out in the southern governorate on July 13 with limited clashes between Druze fighters and Sunni bedouins. Syria’s Islamist-led government sided with the Bedouins and attacked the governorate on July 14. Nevertheless, Israel backed the Druze, whom it promised to protect after the fall of the Assad regime last year, and used its airpower to force government forces to withdraw by July 16.
The battle reignited on July 17 after the withdrawal of the government with Syrian tribes announcing a general mobilization to fight the Druze.
The United States announced a ceasefire after talks with Israel and Syria on July 18, but the attack went on and tribal forces managed to storm the city of al-Suwayda. The forces were pushed out by the Druze by late July 19, with no support from Israel. Since then, sporadic clashes have been ongoing in the northern countryside of al-Suwayda.
The SOHR, which is based in London, said that the battle has so far claimed the lives of 1,339 people, including 196 Druze civilians who were executed by government forces.
The real death toll is expected to be much higher. Government and tribal forces were blamed for a wide range of war crimes against the Druze, from setting buildings on fire, to looting, abductions and summary executions. Videos of these crimes continue to surface online.
Currently, both sides are working on evacuating remaining bedouins from al-Suwayda in exchange for the release of an unknown number of Druze abductees.
The battle is not over yet, as many issues remain unsolved. The government claims that it has the right to deploy its security forces in al-Suwayda under the U.S.-brokered agreement. However, the Druze demand the complete withdrawal of all government and tribal forces from the entirety of the governorate.
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the chosen-ite cult believes it needs these druze ands to attack iran . so they use the genocide card to set up empire
“israel backed the druze, whom it promised to protect”
symbolic rhetoric is not protection. zionist, turkic leadership could care less about “the druze”.
thank you isreali and western asshole terrorists.
jihadi’s gonna jihadi, israeli’s the same. it’ll all be over soon (isaiah 17:1 “damascus a ruinous heap,” starts it all off).
brian berletic said something to the effect of, many sunnis believe shias, iran, yemen are really pro israel and these sunnis countries are the real resistance to the zios.
but it was harder to con them after they saw iranian missiles smash israel. so now the sunnis are staging this as, look we’re anti-israel, we’re fighting those pro zionest druze.
this spin on events would be comical if the carnage weren’t so gruesome.