Seven months after ousting the Assad dynasty, the Sunni fundamentalist Haya’t Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) interim government has failed to suppress sectarian violence and impose security throughout Syria.
The authorities have released Bedouin tribesmen and Druze fighters who clashed earlier, killing 37 and wounding 100 in the Druze-majority province of Sweida, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Detaining combatants could have risked attacks by Druze and Bedouin militias on HTS security forces, which are untrained, undermanned and overstretched.
The violence was sparked by the abduction of a Druze merchant on the road to Damascus during the wave of kidnappings washing over the country.
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The influential Druze Rejal al-Karamah (Men of Dignity) movement blamed the government for the lack of security in the province and warned that unrest “threatens civil peace and paves the way for chaos.”
The interior ministry admitted this escalation was due to the “absence of relevant official institutions, leading to worsening chaos, a collapse of the security situation, and the local community’s inability to contain the crisis despite repeated calls for calm”.
While consolidating its grip on power, the interim government has excluded allied factions and opposition groups and has failed to put all fighters under interior ministry control.
The HTS monopoly has led to unrest in areas still held by former partners. Sidelined Syrian political figures accuse the interim government of failing to deliver on its promise of creating an inclusive administration.
Monday’s outbreak was the first serious violence involving Druze since April and May when 130 were killed and scores wounded in fighting near Damascus after attacks by Sunni militiamen bolstered by government forces.
The Sweida incidents coincided with wildfires set and claimed by Sunni extremist Ansar al-Sunna in forests in the coastal Latakia region in a fresh bid to drive minority Alawites from their stronghold.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said at least 1,400 Alawites were killed by Sunni militiamen and government forces during massacres in Latakia in March and April.
On June 22nd, Ansar al-Sunna took responsibility for a suicide bombing which killed 25 and injured 63 at the Greek Orthodox Mar Elias church in Damascus. This was the first major attack on the Christian community since 1860 during violence between Maronite Catholic Christians and Druze.
With Ankara’s support, HTS asserted control over Syria’s northwestern Idlib province in 2017 and established an opposition “salvation” government.
HTS provided security, repaired roads, restored electricity and water, promoted trade with Turkey and ruled with a heavy hand. Last December HTS and allied Sunni fighters swept out of Idlib with the aim of expanding the territory they held.
HTS unexpectedly toppled the secular Assad government. Governing the vast territory of Syria, and its multi-confessional population of 23 million, observers argue, cannot be compared with administering Syria’s third smallest province with a population of two million.
