More than 100 people have been killed in southern Syria since Sunday, according to a war monitoring group, in one of the deadliest bouts of sectarian violence in the region in years.
The clashes erupted on Sunday between Bedouin groups and militias drawn from the Druse religious minority that control the southern province of Sweida. Those clashes set off days of fighting in a rugged stretch of southern Syria, throwing a spotlight on the difficulties Syria’s new government has had asserting its authority over the country.
The conflict has also drawn in neighboring Israel, which launched a wave of airstrikes at Syrian government forces in Sweida. On Tuesday, government reinforcements entered the province, and the Syrian minister of defense announced a cease-fire. Here’s what you need to know:
Why did the fighting erupt?
The fighting started on Sunday after members of a Bedouin tribe attacked and robbed a Druse man along Sweida’s main highway, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor based in Britain. That incident prompted an exchange of attacks and kidnappings between Druse militias in Sweida and armed Bedouin groups there, some of which are seen as pro-government.
As that unrest swelled, the Syrian government deployed military forces on Monday to quell the conflict, Syrian officials said. But given the deep-seated mistrust of the new government, many in the Druse militia groups thought that the government forces were coming to aid the Bedouins and attack the Druse, according to Druse militia leaders.
In response, many of the Druse militias mobilized to repel the government forces and clashed with them, Druse militia leaders said. Israel also intervened, carrying out a wave of airstrikes on Monday and Tuesday against Syrian government troops in Sweida.
At least 135 people were killed in 48 hours, including two children, according to the war monitor. Among them were 19 people killed in “field executions” by government forces, the monitor said. The Syrian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the execution claims.
Who are the Druse militias?
The Druse religious minority, whose members practice an offshoot of Shiite Islam, makes up around 3 percent of Syria’s population. During the country’s civil war, which lasted nearly 14 years, the Druse formed several militias to defend themselves against the Assad government, as well as against militants who consider them heretics. For years, those militias have effectively controlled Sweida, which is the Druse heartland in Syria and a strategically important province on the border with Jordan and near Israel.
After a Sunni Islamist rebel coalition toppled the half-century-old regime of the Assad family in December, Syria’s new authorities began negotiating with the Druse leaders, seeking to absorb their militias into the new government’s national army.
Government officials see the integration of Druse forces into the military as critical for securing their government’s authority over the entire country, including the south. But Druse militia leaders have remained skeptical of Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Shara, and his pledge to protect the rights of the country’s many religious and ethnic minorities. Mr. al-Shara and many in his cohort were part of an Islamist rebel group, dominated by members of Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority, that was once linked to Al Qaeda.
Why is Israel involved?
Israel has two driving reasons for intervening in southern Syria. First, Israeli leaders want to contain forces hostile to Israel in Syria. Second, they want to assuage the concerns of Israel’s own Druse minority, which has a close relationship with the Israeli government.
Since the Assad regime collapsed, Israel has been worried about Iran-backed militias and other Islamist militants entrenching themselves in southern Syria near the Israeli border. In recent months, Israeli forces have seized control of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria; carried out incursions south of Damascus, the Syrian capital, to arrest anti-Israel militants; and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military targets across the country.
Israeli officials have also intervened militarily — or threatened to intervene — to protect the Druse in Syria. By taking actions to protect them, Israel hopes to strengthen a potential ally against hostile groups near the Israeli border, particularly the part of the Golan Heights inside Syria, according to experts on Israeli-Syrian relations.
“The Israeli government will tell you: We cannot take chances, we don’t want hostile forces settling in the Syrian Golan, we don’t want Iran and Hezbollah playing games there — that’s the logic,” said Itamar Rabinovich, an Israeli historian who led negotiations with Syria during the 1990s.
Still, many Druse leaders in Syria have said they do not want Israel to intervene on their behalf.
What does this mean for Syria’s new government?
The clashes, the third major surge of violence against Syrian religious minorities since the regime of President Bashar al-Assad collapsed in December, renewed fears the country might spiral into a sectarian conflict.
In early March, armed groups who had served in Mr. al-Assad’s security forces ambushed the new government’s forces on the Syrian coast, setting of days of sectarian violence that killed more than 1,000 people, mostly from the minority Alawite sect, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In May, more than 39 people, mostly from the Druse minority, were killed over two days in a wave of violence near Damascus.
Syrian officials have said that the latest round of fighting in Sweida underscores the need for the central government to control the province.
The Interior Ministry described the violence as a dangerous escalation that “comes in the absence of the relevant official institutions, which has led to an exacerbation of the state of chaos, the deterioration of the security situation and the inability of the local community to contain the situation.”
Christina Goldbaum is the Afghanistan and Pakistan bureau chief for The Times, leading the coverage of the region.
The post What to Know About the Fighting in Southern Syria appeared first on New York Times.