Syria’s Druze Fighters reshape frontlines in face of intensifying pressure.

Aug 2025 : The United States vehemently seeks to contain violence between the new Sunni government in Damascus and the country’s minorities. Such a minority is the Druze Sect – numbering only several hundred thousand in Syria. Their survival is seen as a barometer of the fate of other minorities under the new authorities who took power in December after ousting the secular regime of Bashar Al Assad.

Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif, the closest Druze figure outside Syria to Hikmat Al Hijri, the most senior of Syria’s Druze spiritual leaders, who has defied Damascus by demanding a civil constitution and describing the authorities as extremists. He has also demanded that security troops in Sweida be drawn from the local communities, as Sweida has been surrounded by government troops and auxiliaries for the past five weeks. An Israeli army intervention prevented a Syrian military takeover of the city.

The spiritual leader Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif of Israel’s Druze has met a senior US diplomat Thomas Barrack, the US envoy to Syria and Turkey, considered to be a confidante of President Donald Trump, to push for the plight of the Druze Sect’s followers in neighbouring Syria. Mr. Tarif have asked to open a humanitarian corridor to the mostly Druze province of Sweida, during the meeting which took place on Tuesday. Mr. Barrack said he had a “warm and informative” meeting with Mr. Tarif.

Here is a breakdown of the military dynamics among the Druze in Sweida:

Military Council expands grip –

Although the former regime had sought to placate the Druze, the sect mounted a civil disobedience movement in Sweida. Protests and sit ins were protected by an array of militias, who coalesced around Sheikh Al Hijri after the government’s offensive on Sweida last month. Before the recent attack, Sweida had about 4,000 Druze fighters, mainly divided into three groups. The largest remains a coalition known as the Military Council, allied with Mr. Al Hijri and led by Tareq Al Shoufi, an officer who had defected from the Assad army.

Two smaller groups aligned with the government as it sought local allies to help it take over Sweida. The first group comprises remnants of a militia called Men of Dignity and led by Laith Al Balous. Mr. Al Balous is the son of a Druze figure who had defied Mr. Al Assad and was assassinated in 2015. The second is Suleiman Abdul Baqi, chief of a small Druze militia, also allied with the government.

Mr. Al Balous handed over a belt of villages west of Sweida to government troops as they commenced their attack on June 13th. & 14th. However, mass killings of Druze civilians eroded support for the two men, whose armed loyalists have dwindled to a maximum of several hundred. The rest have joined the Military Council, according to sources in Jordan. Sweida borders the kingdom, which also has a small Druze community.

Hundreds of Druze personnel in the former Syrian security forces, who had kept a low profile in Sweida, also joined the Military Council. Hizeb Al Liwa, another militia, has also allied with the group.
A rapid, mass armament movement has also started, with members of the sect gathering in the thousands. “Even the women have taken up arms in Sweida”, one of the sources said. “The Druze have seen how the government tried to overwhelm them with tens of thousands. They want to be prepared for the next time”.

Al Hijri’s power enhanced –

The mass militarisation of Sweida has transformed Mr. Al Hijri into both a spiritual leader and a political decision maker who commands the loyalty of thousands under arms, and a sect that largely sees itself fighting for survival. A confidante of Mr. Al Hijri said that he sees no alternative to militarisation and continuing to seek international protection for the sect. He highlighted Al Hijri’s willingness to alienate Lebanon’s Druze leader Walid Joumblatt as evidence of how convinced he is of the “existential threat” to the community. Joumblatt has called on Syria’s Druze to accommodate the new government and vehemently denounced the Israeli intervention.

Syria’s Druze community “is in mourning but everyone understands that after what Sweida has been through, that there can be no return to Damascus with the current government in place”, the confidante said. He said Tarif has been essential to explaining Al Hijri’s stance, given the siege by Damascus.

Team Maverick