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2 killed near Druze majority Sweida in Syria

DAMASCUS: Two civilians were killed near the Druze-majority city of Sweida in southern Syria on Sunday, two local security sources said, during suspected clashes between local armed groups and government forces. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported the same death toll, adding that government forces and armed groups from the Druze minority group had been exchanging fire since Saturday night. Tensions have been high in Sweida province since clashes between Druze and government-aligned forces last year led to some of the worst communal violence since the fall of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in 2024. A Druze security source said that a shell launched from a government-controlled area “targeted the outskirts of the city of Sweida, striking a tractor and killing two people on board, the driver and a woman who was with him”. Assad-era military commander gunned down in clash Sweida city and other parts of the surrounding Druze-majority province are run by armed groups and are the last major areas outside the grasp of Syria’s new authorities, who have been trying to unite the country after toppling Assad. The Druze are an Arabic-speaking religious minority in Syria comprising around three percent of the country’s population. The security source also said that “intermittent clashes have been taking place between the National Guard and government forces since Saturday night”, referring to prominent Druze leader Hikmat al-Hijri’s armed group. A second source who inspected the missile strike site said that “the tractor was completely burned”, adding that the two victims were farmers. Druze armed groups’ latest row with Damascus came on Saturday when they refused to allow students to head to government-controlled areas to sit for official exams. In July 2025, clashes erupted in Sweida between Druze factions and Bedouin fighters, with government security forces intervening on the side of the Bedouins along with other tribal groups. In the end, more than 2,000 people were killed, including 789 Druze civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor. A committee formed by the Syrian government said it had documented the killing of 1,760 people. Government forces and their allies were accused at the time of executing civilians and other abuses, and Damascus last month said it began trying suspects over the violence. Israel, which also has a Druze population, intervened militarily during the clashes with strikes in Sweida and Damascus, saying it was defending the minority community. Hijri, who has been a vocal critic of the new authorities, praised Israel for its intervention and said on Monday that his community was “an integral part of the State of Israel”. Former army commander killed Syrian security forces said on Sunday that they killed an army commander who served under ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad, after he opened fire on them as they tried to arrest him. In a statement, the forces accused Firas Abdul Karim Hammoud of having taken part in anti-government insurrections that killed security personnel. Since Assad’s fall in December 2024, Syria’s new authorities have arrested dozens of security officials from his rule, and trials began in April. The security forces said they “neutralised Firas Abdul Karim Hammoud…following an armed clash and a raid on his hideout in the town of Safita” in Tartus province in the coastal Alawi heartland. Hammoud had previously “opened fire on security personnel during an attempt to arrest him”, they added. “During the recent operation, he again opened fire and initiated a firefight with the security forces… necessitating their response.” They said Hammoud served as a commander of the special forces in the so-called “25th Division” under Assad’s rule. They accused him of working under Assad-era general Ghiath Dalla in leading pro-Assad groups on the coast after the former president’s fall. They added that he was involved in “armed insurrection operations” against state institutions that killed security personnel. Dalla, a former officer in the much-feared Fourth Brigade, had announced on social media last year the formation of a “military council for the liberation of Syria”. The announcement came shortly before deadly violence targeting the Alawi minority, to which Assad’s family belongs, erupted on the Syrian coast in March 2025. Authorities accused armed Assad supporters of sparking the violence by attacking security forces. A national commission of inquiry said at least 1,426 members of the minority were killed, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor put the toll at more than 1,700. Published in Dawn, August 31st, 2026