'Regime Committing Ethnic Cleansing Against Druze,' Says Suwayda Resident
A Suwayda Druze resident told Kurdistan24 the Syrian regime is committing "ethnic cleansing" against the Druze, using heavy weapons, looting homes, and destroying hospitals. He pleaded for international intervention to break a complete humanitarian siege.
By Kamaran Aziz
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – A resident from Syria’s al-Suwayda province has delivered a harrowing account of the ongoing violence, accusing the Syrian regime and its allied "foreign mercenaries" of committing "ethnic and religious cleansing" against the Druze population through indiscriminate attacks, looting, and a complete humanitarian blockade.
In an interview with Kurdistan24 on Wednesday, Hadi al-Sharani (a pseudonym used for the resident interviewed by Kurdistan24 to protect their identity for security reasons), a Druze resident of the southern Syrian province, detailed a situation of extreme violence and desperation since the Syrian army entered the area.
“Foreign mercenaries recruited by the Syrian regime are committing crimes in al-Suwayda. They are killing civilians and children,” al-Sharani said. “All types of light and heavy weapons, including mortar missiles, rockets, and RPGs, are used against the civilians in the province.”
He alleged that systematic crimes have been ongoing for 36 hours since the Syrian army’s deployment. “They break into houses, damage goods, and loot people’s belongings,” he said.
Al-Sharani described a dire humanitarian crisis, claiming essential services have been deliberately destroyed or cut off. “There are no medical clinics or hospitals in the province anymore; the Syrian army bombarded them all,” he said. “They cut the power from the province, and they even poisoned the water supply to kill the people. There is no internet. They blocked the food and humanitarian support from reaching the province.”
He also provided a perspective on the recent Israeli airstrikes, stating that the “Israeli bombardment has been trying to open up the embargo imposed by the Syrian government army on the civilians in al-Suwayda.” However, he noted that after the bombardments, “the Syrian Army came back again.”
Al-Sharani accused pro-government media of spreading disinformation. “What the pro-Syrian government media say is not true. They are misleading the world about what is happening,” he said.
He concluded with an urgent plea for international action. “We hope the international community intervenes in this matter as soon as possible to save the Druze, because what is happening in al-Suwayda is ethnic and religious cleansing.”
These allegations from a resident on the ground come amid a dramatic and violent escalation in the predominantly Druze province.
The violence, which began on July 13, has resulted in nearly 250 deaths, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). The crisis prompted the Spiritual Leadership of the Druze Unitarian Muslims to issue a desperate appeal to world leaders to "Save al-Suwayda" from what they described as "massacres."
In response, Israel launched direct military action, with Defense Minister Israel Katz announcing that the IDF had been instructed to strike Syrian regime forces in the area. The IDF later confirmed it had struck a Syrian military headquarters near Damascus in addition to targets in the al-Suwayda area, stating it was acting to protect Druze civilians.
Al-Suwayda province has maintained a unique status of relative autonomy throughout Syria's long civil war. In recent years, it has become a center for major anti-government protests driven by the country's severe economic collapse, as reported by international media outlets like the Associated Press and Reuters.
Kurdistan24's English News Writer Dler Mohammed contributed to this report.
