Under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syrian government forces have once again launched an attack on religious minority populations – this time against the Druzes in Suwayda province. It is also reported that an evangelical pastor and his entire family were murdered.
Syrian security forces in Mazara’a in Suwayda province – July 14, 2025. @sayed_ridha, x.
Syrian government forces have once again launched an attack on religious minority populations – this time against the Druze, a religious group which makes up about 3% of Syria’s population, and who are considered heretics by jihadist groups.
Between 14 and 18 July, Syria’s Islamist-controlled government sent troops to occupy Suwayda province, a mountainous region of southern Syria where the majority of the population is Druze. Upon entering population centrEs in the province, government troops carried out numerous atrocities.
Videos circulating on social media show pro-government fighters forcing Druze men to jump off a balcony and then shooting them as they jump. It is reported that an evangelical pastor and his entire family were murdered.
Israel, which also has a Druze population and has promised to protect Syria’s Druzes, responded by attacking government forces from the air, and bombing the Syrian capital of Damascus. By 18 July, the Syrian government bowed to the pressure and withdrew its forces from Suwayda city. As of 21 July, a tenuous ceasefire is holding.
It is estimated that over 1,100 people, including government troops, Druze militia fighters, Druze civilians and Sunni Muslim civilians were killed over the course of the week, and 128,000 displaced.
The attack is Syria’s worst violence since March, when government forces organized the massacre of thousands of Alawite Muslim civilians in Syria’s coastal regions. These massacres led CSI to issue a Genocide Warning for Syria on 10 March.
How the violence unfolded
In December, a jihadist coalition led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former member of al Qaeda and the leader of the terrorist group HTS (Haya’at Tahrir al-Sham), overthrew the brutal dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad. Al-Sharaa declared himself president of Syria in January.
Since then, Suwayda province has been controlled by independent Druze militias, who supported the overthrow of Assad but have so far refused to lay down their arms and accept security forces from the new government in their towns.
At the end of April, a rumor that a Druze leader had insulted Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, led government-aligned forces to attack Druze towns near Damascus. Druze militias have also regularly clashed with government-backed militias from Muslim Bedouin tribes who live in the region.
On Sunday, 13 July, some of these Bedouin militias abducted a Druze man named Fadlallah Duwara on the road between Suwayda and Damascus. In retaliation, Druze militias attacked a Bedouin neighbourhood in Suwayda city, leading to a spiral of violence between the Bedouins and Druzes. On 14 July, President al-Sharaa announced that he would send troops to “restore order” in Suwayda.
Druze leaders, under pressure, initially accepted the arrival of government troops. But as they entered Druze-majority towns, they began looting Druze homes and attacking Druze civilians. Government forces chanted “Allahu Akbar” and called Druzes “infidels” and “pigs.” Numerous videos on social media show government fighters forcing older Druze men to have their moustaches (a symbol of their faith) shaved off, and executing civilians in the street
In response, the Druze militias – including those that had previously supported working with the new government – joined forces and fought back. These militias attacked Bedouin civilians in turn, leading Druze and Bedouin civilians to flee in both directions.
Some of the worst violence seems to have occurred in Suwayda city, the capital of the province, which largely escaped the violence of Syria’s long civil war. There, a Druze woman told the BBC, “There were bodies everywhere outside our building… One of the worst feelings ever is to keep waiting for people to come into your house and decide whether we should live or die.”
In a communication received by CSI on Friday, 18 July, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in Suwayda stated that the province was under a “siege”, “lacking water, electricity, medicine or food”. The Archdiocese appealed for the opening of “humanitarian crossings” and pledged “we will remain on this mountain until the end”.
In the village of al-Mazara’a in Suwayda province, CSI has received information that a man named Bishar Qasim Arnous and his three sons – Barra’ Bishar Arnous, Moaz Bishar Arnous, and Mi’dad Bishar Arnous – were executed by government forces. Al-Mazara’a was controlled by Druze militias until last week, but has now been seized by government forces.
In another incident, according to the UN Human Rights Office, government troops opened fire on a family gathering, killing 13 people.
Pastor, family murdered
The Sweden-based aid organisation A Demand for Action reported that Khaled Mazhar, the pastor of the Good Shepherd Evangelical Church in Suwayda city, was murdered along with his wife, his children, and some of his other relatives – 12 people in all.
“A thirteenth victim – a young woman – miraculously survived, as the perpetrators believed she was dead,” the group said.
Weak international response
International reaction to the killings has so far been muted. On Sunday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanded that the Syrian government “bring to justice anyone guilty of atrocities including those in their own ranks”.
On Saturday, however, Ambassador Tom Barrack, the US Special Envoy for Syria, demanded that Syrian security forces be deployed in Suwayda Governorate – the same security forces which committed atrocities against Druze civilians earlier in the week.
In a statement on X, Dr. John Eibner, the president of Christian Solidarity International, condemned “the impunity with which death squads and other militias loyal to the al-Sharaa regime have violently persecuted non-Sunni religious minorities since seizing power militarily last December”.
“Eight months after al-Sharaa’s ascent to power, it is no longer possible to deny the existential threat that religious minorities face in the ‘new Syria,’” commented Joel Veldkamp, CSI’s director for public advocacy.
“The massacres of Alawites on the coast in March, of Christians at Mar Elias Church in June, and Druzes in July are only the tip of the iceberg. In between these spurts of mass killing, religious minorities are being kidnapped, forced from their homes, or otherwise abused every day in Syria. This violence is driven by an ideology which views all non-Sunni Muslims as inferior – the same ideology which Syria’s new rulers rode to power.”
“If the international community wants to prevent a genocide, a new civil war and another massive refugee wave from Syria, it must act now to hold the al-Sharaa regime to account,” he concluded.
