In Syria’s south, Bedouins uprooted by sectarian clashes see little hope of return

By Laila Bassam and Tom Perry

NAWA, Syria (Reuters) -As sectarian violence swept through Syria's southern Sweida province in July, the Sbeih family say they were taken by Druze gunmen and held in a school with other Bedouin tribe members. When their guards disappeared after three nights, they tried to escape.

Shots were fired, and the Bedouins scattered. Faisal Sbeih and his wife, Fasl, were separated. Three family members were killed, they said, including their 20-year-old daughter, Malak.

She had been due to marry the next day.

Faisal accused militias loyal to leading Druze cleric Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajari of driving his Sunni Muslim community out of Sweida - a view echoed by more than a dozen displaced Bedouins interviewed by Reuters.

"We lived together; we bought bread from the same bakery, water from the same shop," Faisal said of his Druze neighbours in a series of interviews.

Now, he said, "they don't want any (Bedouins) at all".

Part of Faisal's account is corroborated by video that circulated on social media at the time showing Bedouin families at the Druze property in the village of Umm Zeitoun where he said they were taken captive.

The family of 10 is now camped out in Nawa, a village in neighbouring Daraa province where they work the fields of a farmer who provides them a tent to sleep in.

They are among tens of thousands uprooted from both communities during a week of bloodletting that shattered generations of fragile coexistence and all but ended the Bedouins’ presence in most of Sweida. More than 1,000 people were killed, most of them Druze, according to two groups monitoring the conflict.

The violence was some of Syria's worst since longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad was toppled, causing fresh strains as the country’s new leaders struggle to exert control. Months later, fear, hostility and grievances on both sides leave little hope of displaced Bedouins returning soon to Sweida, a Druze-majority province in a country where Sunnis are the dominant religious group.

Druze leaders who spoke with Reuters said they tried to protect Bedouin families and deny there was a campaign to evict them. But a senior militia commander said their return was at present unacceptable, accusing Bedouin fighters of taking part in what he described as ethnic cleansing by Syria’s Islamist-led government and extremist groups against his community.

"They are a cancerous condition on the body of Sweida, and they bear responsibility for all the bloodshed," said Tarek al-Maghoush, who is part of a new National Guard formed by armed groups loyal to Hajari to defend Druze.

Maghoush said Druze forces gathered Bedouin families at designated shelters to protect them from any retaliation and helped facilitate the evacuation of some 2,000 people following a U.S.-backed truce.

He denied that Druze militias attacked Bedouin civilians, questioning how the Sbeihs could know who fired at them with fighting taking place. Druze are also waiting to return home, uprooted from over 30 villages that fell to the government, he said.

In a statement to Reuters, Hajari's office said the cleric had prohibited any assault against Bedouins, calling them "an integral part of our social fabric".

The statement noted their "mass withdrawal" from Sweida coincided with the departure of government forces, suggesting they left because of the role some played in the violence. Hajari's office did not answer questions about their return.

Syria's Information Ministry rejected Druze accusations of a genocide in Sweida, saying abuses were committed by all sides. It said many Bedouins left because factions loyal to Hajari attacked their communities, creating a "climate of fear and instability".

SYRIA'S PRESIDENT VOWED TO PROTECT DRUZE

President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al Qaeda commander who led rebel factions that ousted Assad last December, has vowed to protect Druze. His government set up a committee to investigate the Sweida violence, detaining nearly a dozen security personnel suspected of abuses, the ministry told Reuters.

On September 16, the government announced a 13-point roadmap agreed with U.S. and Jordanian envoys to resolve the conflict. It includes a commitment to take steps to enable displaced residents to return home. However, a body set up by Hajari loyalists in August to run Sweida swiftly rejected the plan, reiterating demands for self-determination, which the government opposes.

The Druze, who follow a religion that emerged as an offshoot of Islam in the 11th century, number close to 1 million in Syria, about 3% of the population. Some Muslim extremists deem them heretics. Tensions have flared periodically.

The latest violence began on July 12, when a Druze merchant was abducted on the road to the capital, Damascus, residents said. Druze held Bedouins responsible, touching off tit-for-tat kidnappings. Clashes ensued.

The violence worsened when government forces dispatched to restore order clashed with Druze militiamen, with widespread reports of looting, summary killings and other abuses.

Israel entered the fray with encouragement from its Druze minority, attacking government forces with the stated aims of protecting Syrian Druze and keeping its borders free from militants. Sunni tribal fighters mobilised from other areas of Syria to support their kin.

Late on July 16, government forces withdrew from Sweida under the truce.

That morning, the Sbeihs awoke to sounds of fighting in a nearby village.

Shortly afterwards, Faisal said, scores of Druze gunmen entered their neighbourhood and opened fire.

The Sbeihs fled with dozens of others, seeking shelter from Druze neighbours who had offered protection the day before.

"The first half hour we felt we were safe with them," Faisal said, until a Druze militia leader arrived and declared himself in charge.

"At that moment, we knew we were prisoners."

‘NOT ONE OF YOU WILL REMAIN ALIVE’

Reuters verified two video clips showing Bedouin families at the Druze property. In one, a voice off-camera is heard telling Bedouin men assembled on a veranda they are safe before accusing Sunni coreligionists of coming “a thousand kilometres” to kill “our children”.

Faisal said the voice belonged to the Druze militia leader. He tells the men the video will be sent to their kin, an apparent reference to Bedouin fighters. He then asks, "Where are their women?"

A door opens to a room packed with dozens of people, mostly women and children. The man says they are also safe but adds the situation will not end well if their kin come to Umm Zeitoun.

"We will protect you, but if they reach here, you and them will be in the same boat,” he says.

Another clip shows a Druze sheikh telling the families to leave Umm Zeitoun.

"If there is confrontation between us, and you fire on us, not one of you will remain alive," he warns, wagging his finger.

Later that day, the Bedouins were put in vehicles and driven to a school, where they were held under armed guard until July 19, Faisal said.

Reuters was able to confirm the location of the clips by comparing buildings and trees in one of them with satellite imagery.

People with the same features and clothing appear in both clips. Faisal's brother, Nasri, pointed himself out in one clip along with their father and Faisal's daughter, Malak.

Reuters made multiple attempts to reach the militia leader and sheikh, whose identities the news agency could not independently verify. A number provided for the sheikh was out of service, and requests for comment sent via Hajari’s office received no response.

Asked about the clips, Druze commander Maghoush said the sheikh told Bedouins to leave for their own safety, and the men’s remarks should not be taken as threats.

“Blood is being shed,” he said. “Sometimes a person may go too far verbally, but this does not mean the situation is generalised.”

TENS OF THOUSANDS DISPLACED

Syria’s government estimates that around 150,000 Druze and 70,000 Bedouins were displaced in July. Most of the Druze remained within Sweida, while Bedouins mostly headed to other parts of Syria, seeking shelter in schools, hotels or with relatives.

Mustafa al-Umayri, a lawyer and spokesperson for displaced Bedouins, puts their number higher. He said almost the entire Bedouin population of Sweida, which he said numbered at least 120,000, had left.

Mazen Ezzi, a Druze researcher and journalist to whom Reuters was referred by Hajari’s office, said there were just 35,000 Sweida Bedouins, and 25,000 left.

Druze fighters now control much of Sweida, patrolling roads and running local councils.

Tensions remain high. Members of both communities reported that their homes were torched, looted or occupied by the other side. And both accuse each other of holding prisoners.

The U.S. State Department said Washington continues to facilitate discussions under the roadmap, citing progress on aid access, restoring trade and government services, and prisoner exchanges.

But the sides remain at odds over Hajari’s call for independence.

Syria’s Information Ministry said the security of both Druze and Bedouins depends on reestablishing government control - a view shared by Umayri, who called this a prerequisite for the Bedouins' return.

Hajari’s refusal to engage directly with the government has been one of the main impediments to resolving the conflict, the ministry told Reuters.

Hajari's office said it rejects any contact with the government, accusing it of holding an "extremist, terrorist ideology" - an assertion dismissed by the ministry as "slander".

Haid Haid, senior non-resident fellow at the Paris-based Arab Reform Initiative think tank, said it was hard to imagine the communities living side by side again without comprehensive efforts to address scars from the clashes.

"People have seen a different side to their neighbours,” he said. “They now see them as dehumanized.”

Two Druze residents from Umm Zeitoun said Bedouin fighters torched Druze homes during an attack on the village. "Nobody would accept" the Bedouins’ return at present, said one, declining to be identified for safety reasons.

The Sbeihs are desperate to recover their daughter’s body but fear it isn’t safe to look.

When the family was separated, Fasl found Malak bleeding from a bullet wound in her back. They sheltered under a tree, she recalled, but Druze fighters surrounded them, loading Fasl onto one truck and Malak onto another.

Fasl was taken to a nearby village, where she said she was held for several days before being put on a bus to Daraa and reunited with Faisal. Fasl’s captors told her Malak was taken to a hospital, where she died.

Faisal and Nasri’s 70-year-old father and Nasri's 3-year-old daughter were also killed, the brothers said.

Faisal, who evaded capture, is still shocked at how quickly their lives unravelled.

He said he worked 17 years in Lebanon to build a home in Umm Zeitoun, where he raised livestock and grew wheat, barley, figs, olives, pomegranates and grapes. It was all gone in “moments”.

"How can anyone go back?" Faisal asked. "They destroyed us."

(Yamam Al Shaar and Khalil Ashawi reported from Nawa, Syria, and Laila Basam and Tom Perry reported from Beirut; Additional reporting by Maya Gebeily in Beirut; Video verification by Eleanor Whalley and Monica Naime; Writing by Tom Perry and John Davison; Editing by Alexandra Zavis)