The Druze massacre in Syria and the true face of the new regime

The rise to power of a new regime in Syria last December marked the end of a brutal 14-year-long civil war. In the past months since the fall of the autocratic Assad regime, which had ruled Syria for more than half a century, new hope had awoken.

The newly appointed president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, has received wide international recognition – so far meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron, UN chief Antonio Guterres, and US president Donald Trump. Those meetings reflected a swift transformation of a man that only, a short time earlier, was known under his nom de guerre of Muhammad Al-Jolani, a wanted Al-Qaeda commander with a $10 million USD bounty on his head, due to his role in terror attacks against American forces in Iraq.

Nevertheless, recent violent events against minority communities in Syria raise the suspicion that this international rapid rehabilitation is misguided, and that the new leader of Syria has not abandoned his radical Jihadist past.

It just might be the case that he engulfs two identities simultaneously: President Al-Sharaa and Jihadist Al-Jolani. In the past week alone, more than 1,000 people from the Druze minority, a religious group claimed to be infidels by radical Jihadists, were massacred – many of whom were unarmed civilians.

The trigger for the murder spree was a local incident between the Druze inhabitants of southern Syria, where most of the country’s 700,000 Druze minority resides, and local Sunni tribes known for their Islamist zeal.

The events escalated into widespread attacks on Druze villages in the area, with scenes of Jihadist fighters looting villages, committing public executions and forcing by gun point Druze men to jump off buildings to their death, quickly circulating on social media.

President Al-Sharaa officially called for calm and denied that regime forces are taking part in the massacre, but a short ceasefire was violated as forces affiliated with the regime continued attacks.

Druze leaders called for calm as well, but as the community’s leadership is splintered between few high-ranking religious figures, some went as far as calling for foreign intervention to save them from the hands of the regime-affiliated Jihadists.

It should be mentioned that this pattern by Al-Sharaa is known. Back in 2015, when he was heading the Al-Qaeda affiliated “The Nusra Front” group in a self-administered region in Northern Syria, forces under his command killed dozens of Druze in a local village. At the time, Al-Sharaa similarly denied any responsibility over the attack and pinned it on “rogue” elements within his ranks.

This pattern was demonstrated again more recently last March. This time it was the Alawite community, another religious minority seen as infidels by Al-Sharaa's radical followers, that was the target of his security forces. More than 1,000 members of the community, many of them civilians, were killed in a week-long conflict that was triggered after Alawite fighters loyal to the former regime attacked the new security forces. Once again, the president claimed he had no responsibility, blamed Alawite radicals for the events, and promised to investigate any unjustified violence against civilians.

The domestic stability of Syria and the fate of its numerous religious and ethnic minorities, which include the Druze and Alawites and also Christians and Kurds, should be a major international concern.

The memories of the Yazidi genocide carried out by radical Jihadists in Syria and Iraq less than one decade ago is still fresh within the minds of Syria’s minority communities. Their suspicious stance towards the regime in Damascus is well-established, and incidents like those against the Alawites and Druze further feeds these fears.

From Israel’s point of view, the violence against the Druze in southern Syria represents a complex challenge, especially at a time when new communication channels have been built within the new regime in Damascus.

As Israel is the home of some 150,000 Druze, many of whom serve in the IDF and are active citizens, the images that came out of Syria created a public outcry for Israeli military intervention to stop the atrocities, with hundreds of Israeli Druze even storming the border and crossing into Syria to assist their families.

The Israeli government ordered the IDF to strike regime forces on their way to join the fighting, and targeted attacks were carried out against the Ministry of Defence and Presidential Palace in Damascus, messaging Al-Sharaa that the internal events have crossed Israel’s red lines.

This intervention was widely condemned by the international community, seen as unjustified Israeli meddling in Syrian domestic affairs, and mediation efforts led by the US were quickly carried out to prevent any further escalation.

These recent events have demonstrated the uncertain future of Syria under Al-Sharra's regime.

The question of whether the once renowned Jihadist has transformed into a political leader that could reunite the country after more than a decade of bloody civil war remains unanswered.

Instead, two alarming possibilities have arisen. Either Al-Sharaa is too weak to enforce his authority over radical jihadists that are part of today’s Syrian regime; or he is presenting a moderate image to the international community while covertly using his followers to implement the vision of radical Jihadism, which today threatens local religious minorities, and tomorrow, could export its violence and destabilise neighbouring countries.