Bedouin fighters appear in the back of a pick-up truck in Deraa (southern Syria), as they launch a new offensive against Druze factions, despite a cease-fire announced the previous evening by the central government to put an end to days of bloody fighting in the neighboring province of Sweida, on July 17, 2025. (Credit: Khalil Ashawi/Reuters.)
The sequence of events in Sweida marks its first real defeat. Since the fall of the Assad regime more than seven months ago, the new leadership embodied by Ahmad al-Sharaa has faltered more than once.Upon taking power, the former jihadist at the head of the radical Islamist group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) did everything possible to assert his authority, while also trying to reassure both minorities fearful for their safety and Western powers. Read more about the Druze situation in Syria Druze in Lebanon agitated amid Sweida clashes: 'Our brothers are trapped' If, on the first front, the massacres of Alawites on the coast in March had already sent a serious warning signal, the interim president nevertheless managed to score significant points in his quest for international legitimacy – even securing the lifting of U.S....
The sequence of events in Sweida marks its first real defeat. Since the fall of the Assad regime more than seven months ago, the new leadership embodied by Ahmad al-Sharaa has faltered more than once.Upon taking power, the former jihadist at the head of the radical Islamist group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) did everything possible to assert his authority, while also trying to reassure both minorities fearful for their safety and Western powers. Read more about the Druze situation in Syria Druze in Lebanon agitated amid Sweida clashes: 'Our brothers are trapped' If, on the first front, the massacres of Alawites on the coast in March had already sent a serious warning signal, the interim president nevertheless managed to score significant points in his quest for international legitimacy – even securing the lifting of U.S....
