Latest news with #Deraa
The National
2 days ago
- Politics
- The National
Israel strikes tanks in Syria after dozens die in fighting in Sweida
Israel launched air strikes on southern Syria on Monday after dozens of people were killed in fighting between forces allied with the Syrian government and sects wary of the post-Assad order. Syrian troops were sent to the Druze heartland of Sweida after 38 people were killed in clashes. The government said six of its troops were among the dead, while an estimated 30 government auxiliaries were also killed. Druze sources said pro-Syrian government militias launched attacks on the city of Sweida from Sunni areas to its west as the province came under a siege by government forces. The Syrian Defence Ministry said it had begun 'spreading military units in the affected areas'. It blamed 'an institutional vacuum' for 'worsening the chaos'. Israel later said its military struck a number of tanks in southern Syria. It did not provide details, but a source in Sweida said the area where the tanks were hit, between Sijen and Samii in Deraa province, had been a launchpad for attacks on the Druze. Israel intervened in April to halt attacks on Druze communities in Damascus and Sweida which killed dozens of civilians. Syria contains most of the world's one million Druze, who follow an offshoot of Islam that is also present in Israel, Lebanon and Jordan. The latest violence also follows the killing over two days in March of 1,300 Alawites in incursions by government forces and auxiliaries into Syria's coastal Alawite region. More than 30 killed in sectarian clashes in southern Syria On Sunday, at least one Druze town was seized by militias from neighbouring Deraa, in the worst violence against the community of 800,000 people since the April clashes, sources said. Syrian authorities said they were 'following the bloody developments in Sweida with worry and sadness'. They said troops had begun deploying in affected areas, providing safe passage for civilians and disengaging combatants. Sweida and parts of eastern Syria, where the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces are powerful, are the only areas where the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) government that last year ended the rule of the dictator Bashar Al Assad does not exert control. The leadership of both the Kurds and the Druze have opposed what they describe as HTS's religious agenda under Syria's new President, Ahmad Al Shara. The latest clashes started last week after Fadlalah Duwara, a vegetable seller and member of the Druze community, was abducted while driving his lorry on the main road from Sweida to Damascus, which is under government control. His tribe responded by abducting a man in a Sunni neighbourhood of Sweida. The area is inhabited by members of Bedouin tribes who moved to the city decades ago from a rugged region on the outskirts. The attacks provoked a kidnapping cycle that broke into clashes in the city on Sunday, according to residents and sources in Jordan who are in contact with people in the province. By Monday the situation in Sweida had calmed after most of the hostages from the two sides were freed. But the western outskirts came under attack by militias based in Lajat, Busra Al Harir and Busra Al Sham, the Druze sources said. They said the Druze town of Al Dour fell to the militias overnight, while Daara, another Druze town, has changed hands several times. A Druze political figure close to the Druze spiritual leader Hikmat Al Hijri told The National that Sweida is 'falling under siege', with the 40th division of the new Syrian army backing the militias from Deraa who are attacking the Druze in the west. The 70th Division was deployed last month in the east of Sweida city, and since Sunday regular troops have provided manpower from the north. The south of Sweida province borders Jordan. Suhail Thebian, a prominent Druze civil figure, said the attackers from the west were being met with heavy resistance. 'If the incursion works out, there will be a sectarian massacre, like the one that befell the coast,' he said, adding that the authorities would blame 'undisciplined elements' within their ranks. 'Al Shara wants to break the mountain in any shape of form,' Mr Thebian added. Sweida is known as the Mountain of the Arabs. It is where a failed revolt against French rule started in 1925. That uprising was crushed after two years but it helped carve out an image of the Druze as Syrians above all. Sana, the official Syrian news agency, said Syrian security forces had been sent to the administrative borders between the Deraa and Sweida provinces. Secondary school exams due to take place on Monday were postponed. Many Druze, particularly the minority's spiritual leadership under Sheikh Al Hijri, have resisted attempts by the central authorities to control the province by deploying new police units. Sheikh Al Hijri has accused the HTS government of extremism and lack of interest in a civil-based, democratic order to replace the past regime. HTS, a group formerly affiliated with Al Qaeda, led an offensive that ended five decades of Assad family rule in December. In the last year of Mr Al Assad's rule, the Druze, led by Sheikh Al Hijri, mounted a peaceful anti-regime protest movement in Sweida, although the Assad regime maintained its forces in the area. The Druze have survived persecution by the French and the Ottomans, and retribution for a failed coup led by a Druze officer against the country's Alawite rulers in the 1960s, as well as the 13 years of civil war that preceded the downfall of Mr Al Assad. In the offensive that toppled Mr Al Assad, the HTS swept out from areas in northern Syria that it had run according to its strict interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence. Many inside the HTS rebel movement view the Druze – whose religion contains elements of Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism – as heretics. But since becoming Syria's President in January, Mr Al Shara, the leader of HTS, has repeatedly signalled that no harm will come to members of the country's many minorities unless they are found to have been complicit in the crimes of the former regime.
BBC News
05-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Held at gunpoint: BBC team detained by Israeli forces in southern Syria
On the morning of 9 May, I was part of a BBC Arabic team which left the Syrian capital, Damascus, for the southern province of Deraa. From there we planned to go to the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan wanted to get close to the Syrian territory that has been seized by the Israeli military since December, when Israel's prime minister said it was taking control indefinitely of a demilitarised buffer zone and neighbouring areas following the fall of Bashar al-Assad's were a team of seven - myself (a British citizen), two Iraqi BBC staff, and four Syrians - three freelancers and one BBC cameraman. We were filming near one of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) observation posts, close to the town of al-Rafeed, when an official from the UN told us that the Israeli side had inquired about our identity and had been informed that we were a BBC next drove north towards Quneitra city, which has been located inside the buffer zone since a 1974 disengagement agreement between Syria and Israel, which captured the Golan during the 1967 Middle East 200m (660ft) away from the city, an unguarded checkpoint blocked the road. To the side of the checkpoint we spotted Merkava tanks, one of which was flying an Israeli a nearby tower, two Israeli soldiers were watching us - one of them through binoculars - and my colleague held his BBC ID up for them to BBC has complained to the Israeli military about what happened next to my team, but it has not yet received a response. A minute after we started filming in the area, a white car approached from the other side of the Israeli soldiers got out of the car and surrounded us. They pointed their rifles at our heads and ordered us to place the camera on the side of the road. I tried to explain that we were a BBC crew, but things escalated unexpectedly quickly.I was able to send a message to my BBC colleagues in London saying that we had been stopped by the Israeli military before our phones and all equipment were confiscated, more Israeli soldiers arrived in a Humvee military vehicle, and our car was thoroughly soldiers escorted us through a barrier into the city of Quneitra and stopped at the crossing point that separates Quneitra from the occupied Golan. There, the soldiers began reviewing the footage as we sat in our car, while one pointed his rifle at my head from metres away. After more than two hours, one of the soldiers asked me to step out of the car and speak on a mobile phone.I didn't know who the person on the line was. He spoke broken Arabic. He asked why we were filming Israeli military positions. I told him I was a British BBC journalist and explained to him the nature of our work. I returned to my car, and the rifle was again aimed at my another hour of waiting, one more vehicle arrived. A group of security personnel got out of the car carrying blindfolds and plastic zip ties and asked me to step out lead officer, who spoke fluent Palestinian Arabic dialect, took me by the hand towards one of the rooms at the crossing point which were previously used by the Syrian army. The floor was strewn with broken glass and rubbish. He told me that they would treat me differently - no handcuffs, nor blindfold - unlike the rest of my team.I was in shock. I asked why they were doing this when they knew we were a BBC said he wanted to help get us out quickly and that we had to comply with their instructions. Moments later, another officer entered and told me to take off all my clothes except my underwear. I initially refused, but they insisted, and threatened me, so I complied. He inspected even inside my underwear, both front and back, searched my clothes, then told me to put them back on and started interrogating me - including personal questions about my children and their they eventually let me out of the room, I witnessed the horrific scene of my team members, tied up and blindfolded. I pleaded to the officer to release them, and he promised to do so after the interrogations. They were taken one by one to the same room for strip search and returned with their hands still bound but not blindfolded. The team's interrogation lasted more than two hours, during which all our phones and laptops were examined, and many photos - including personal ones - were officer threatened us with worse consequences if we approached the frontier from the Syrian side again, and said that they know everything about us and would track us down if any hidden or un-deleted photo was ever seven hours after our detention - it was past 21:00 - we were taken by two vehicles, one in front of our car and the other behind us, to a rural area about 2km (1.2 miles) outside Quneitra. There, the vehicles stopped and a bag containing our phones was thrown towards us before the vehicles in the dark with no signal, no internet and no idea where we were, we kept driving until we reached a small village.A group of children pointed us to the highway, warning that a wrong turn could draw Israeli fire. Ten tense minutes later, we found the road. Forty-five minutes after that, we were in Damascus.
The National
04-06-2025
- Politics
- The National
Hezbollah splinter group in Syria risks confrontation with Israel after rare rocket attack
A small group in southern Syria that once formed part of a Hezbollah network is suspected of carrying out an overnight rocket attack on an Israeli-occupied area in the Golan Heights, sources said on Wednesday as Syrian authorities denied Israeli claims that Damascus was responsible. The two rockets hit an open area and caused no casualties, according to the Israeli military, which responded with air raids on several Syrian military sites. The US envoy to Syria, Thomas Barack, visited the Golan Heights on Wednesday, indicating the seriousness of the incident. It was the first such attack on Israel from Syria since rebels led by the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham group toppled former president Bashar Al Assad in December. New President Ahmad Al Shara has sought to consolidate control of the country in the face of sectarian violence, and now faces the fresh challenge of handling Israel's response. A previously unknown group calling itself the Martyr Mohammed Deif Brigades claimed responsibility. Mr Deif was the military chief of Hamas who was killed by Israel last year in its war to eliminate the Palestinian militant group from Gaza. Two sources in Jordan, which borders the Golan Heights, said the attack appeared to be the work of a local group with 12 members comprising Palestinian refugees and Syrians from the district of Nawa in Deraa governorate. The rockets were fired from the Sahm Al Golan area, south of Nawa, they said. It is one of many of small groups that Hezbollah and Iran set up in southern Syria around 2018, three years after Russia's intervention in the Syrian civil war caused significant defeats for rebels fighting the former regime. Tehran and Moscow were the main backers of Mr Al Assad's 24-year rule. "These groups were designed to be small, nimble and hard to detect," one of the sources said, adding that many of them had kept open lines of communications with Hezbollah and Hamas. "The Israelis have reacted strongly because they don't want the south to become a launch pad against them again," the source said. In the final year of the Assad regime, Israeli troops faced increasing rocket and drone attacks that Israel blamed on Iran and its militia allies. Israel does not trust the HTS-led government that replaced Mr Al Assad and is upset about the support it has received from countries in the region and the West, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the US and the EU. HTS, a group formerly linked with Al Qaeda, was allied with Turkey when it launched the offensive that ended five decades of Assad family rule on December 8. "We will not allow a return to the reality of October 7," said Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz, referring to the surprise Hamas attack on Israel that started the present war in GAz Israel responded to the regime change by sending its troops into Syrian territory across the UN buffer zone in the Golan Heights, south-west of Damascus, and bombing military and militia installations across Syria, particularly in southern areas. This has vastly curbed the ability of the new Syrian government to deploy troops and military hardware in the south as it seeks to establish control over the entire country. Israel's attacks on Syria have subsided in recent weeks, with reports emerging that the two sides had engaged in talks. On Wednesday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said Syria does not "pose a threat to anyone in the region" and that "peaceful solutions" are needed across the region. "The utmost priority in Syria's south is to spread the authority of the state and end the presence of non-state arms," a ministry statement said.
The National
04-06-2025
- General
- The National
Israel-Syria tensions spike after rocket attack in Golan Heights
A small group in southern Syria that once formed part of a Hezbollah network is suspected of carrying out an overnight rocket attack on an Israeli-controlled area in the Golan Heights, sources said on Wednesday as Syrian authorities denied Israeli claims that Damascus was responsible. The two rockets hit an open area and caused no casualties, according to the Israeli military, which responded with air raids on several Syrian military sites. The US envoy to Syria, Thomas Barack, visited the Golan Heights on Wednesday, indicating the seriousness of the incident. It was the first such attack on Israel from Syria since rebels led by the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham group toppled former president Bashar Al Assad in December. New President Ahmad Al Shara has sought to consolidate control of the country in the face of sectarian violence and now faces the fresh challenge of Israel's response. A previously unknown group calling itself the Martyr Mohammed Deif Brigades claimed responsibility. Mr Deif was the military chief of Hamas who was killed by Israel last year in its war to eliminate the Palestinian militant group from Gaza. Two sources in Jordan, which borders the Golan Heights, said the attack appeared to be the work of a local group with 12 members comprising Palestinian refugees and Syrians from the district of Nawa in Deraa governorate. The rockets were fired from the Sahm Al Golan area, south of Nawa, they said. It is one of many of small groups that Hezbollah and Iran set up in southern Syria around 2018, three years after Russia's intervention in the Syrian civil war caused significant defeats for rebels fighting the former regime. Tehran and Moscow were the main backers of Mr Al Assad's 24-year rule. "These groups were designed to be small, nimble and hard to detect," one of the sources said, adding that many of them had kept open lines of communications with Hezbollah and Hamas. "The Israelis have reacted strongly because they don't want the south to become a launch pad against them again," the source said. In the final year of the Assad regime, Israeli troops faced increasing rocket and drone attacks that Israel blamed on Iran and its militia allies. Israel does not trust the HTS-led government that replaced Mr Al Assad and is upset about the support it has received from countries in the region and the West, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the US and the EU. HTS, a group formerly linked with Al Qaeda, was allied with Turkey when it launched the offensive that ended five decades of Assad family rule on December 8. Israel responded to the regime change by sending its troops into Syrian territory across the UN buffer zone in the Golan Heights, south-west of Damascus, and bombing military and militia installations across Syria, particularly in southern areas. This has vastly curbed the ability of the new Syrian government to deploy troops and military hardware in the south as it seeks to establish control over the entire country. Israel's attacks on Syria have subsided in recent weeks, with reports emerging that the two sides had engaged in talks. On Wednesday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said Syria does not "pose a threat to anyone in the region" and that "peaceful solutions" are needed across the region. "The utmost priority in Syria's south is to spread the authority of the state and end the presence of non-state arms," a ministry statement said.
Al Jazeera
03-06-2025
- General
- Al Jazeera
Syria says Israeli attack on Deraa causes ‘significant' losses
Syria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned an Israeli strike on the Syrian province of Deraa, saying that it caused 'significant human and material losses', the state news agency SANA reports. The strike came after the Israeli military said that two projectiles had crossed from Syria towards Israel on Tuesday, and fell in open areas, though the Syrian Foreign Ministry said these were 'reports that have not been verified yet'. The ministry reiterated that Syria has not and would not pose a threat to any party in the region. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the projectiles. 'We believe that there are many parties that may seek to destabilise the region to achieve their own interests,' the ministry added. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he held Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa responsible for the projectiles. 'We consider the president of Syria directly responsible for any threat and fire towards the State of Israel, and a full response will come soon,' Katz said. Syria and Israel have recently engaged in indirect talks to ease tensions, a significant development in relations between states that have been on opposite sides of the conflict in the Middle East for decades. Several Arab and Palestinian media outlets circulated a claim of responsibility from a little-known group named the Muhammad Deif Brigades, an apparent reference to Hamas's military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024. The statement from the group could not be independently verified. The Israeli army said it attacked southern Syria with artillery fire after the projectiles launched at Israel. Residents said that Israeli mortars were striking the Wadi Yarmouk area, west of Deraa province, near the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The area has witnessed increased tensions in recent weeks, including reported Israeli military incursions into nearby villages, where residents have reportedly been barred from sowing their crops. Israel has waged a campaign of aerial bombardment that has destroyed much of Syria's military infrastructure. It has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and taken more territory in the aftermath of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's removal in December, citing lingering concerns over the past of the country's new government. Around the same time that Israel reported the projectiles from Syria, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile from Yemen. Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said they targeted Israel's Jaffa with a ballistic missile. The group has been launching attacks against Israel in what they say is in support of Palestinians during the Israeli war in Gaza.
