Assad Is Losing His Troops

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Syria's Druze Are Abandoning Assad
Syria’s Druze Are Abandoning Assad
By : Hassan Hassan

A major minority sect in Syria doesn’t want to fight for an imperiled regime, and could be critical in deciding the next phase of the civil war.

A quiet insurrection against the Assad regime has been building for the past year in the Syrian province of Sweida, home to the bulk of the country’s minority Druze population. The rebellion reached a crescendo this week when a prominent religious figure declared that the Druze were no long obliged to serve in the Syrian Arab Army—a development that poses a major threat to the teetering regime of Bashar al-Assad, which has long been losing soldiers to defections and desertions and more recently been losing ground to an increasingly more organized and effective rebel force.

Over the course of the Syrian civil war, religious minorities have proved instrumental to the resilience of the regime, which used the support of Alawites, Christians and Druze to bolster its claims of legitimacy inside and outside the country. While that remains true today, Druze seem to be pushing for a different reality than the one Assad imposed on minorities for his own survival. Depending on how the regime manages the situation, a mass Druze abandonment of the regime could prove pivotal in how the war progresses from here.

The discontent in Sweida began in earnest during the sham presidential “election” held June 2014, when the regime sought to bolster its domestic support by cajoling minority groups to rally on its behalf. Clerics marched from the Ain al-Zaman shrine, one of the Druze’s most revered places of worship, to protest against the use of Druze religious imagery to promote Assad. The clerics asked for the sacking of the military security chief in the province and proclaimed that Druze represented only their sect and should not be labelled as backers of the regime.

Conditions only grew worse late last month when when locals in Sweida bridled at the arrests of young Druze to force them to serve in the military. Small-scale clashes with the security forces also took place in December in several towns over forced conscription. Last week, Assad issued a desperate plea for young Druze to defend their province from rebel attacks. The decree also stipulated that those who join the army from Sweida would not be required to serve outside their areas—a remarkable compromise from Damascus, which has rarely caved to popular demand.

“Estimates of the number of Druze who have deserted or refused to join the Syrian army vary from 12,000 to more than 27,000.”

If Assad was hoping that this conciliatory gesture would be sufficient to keep the Druze on side, he was badly mistaken. Sheikh Abu Fahad Wahid Balous, one of Sweida’s prominent religious leaders, defied the plea on Saturday and declared that no Druze should be obligated to join the army. “We have ended mandatory conscription,” Balous said to a cheering crowd in a video posted online. “It is strictly forbidden for young men to be picked up by force from their homes, a street or a checkpoint, whether they are of conscription age or wanted for desertion or for reserve duty.” In December, Druze opposition member Jabr al-Shoufi told the Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq al-Awsat that Druze clerics forbade funeral prayers for those who die fighting with the regime.

Estimates of the number of Druze who have deserted or refused to join the Syrian army vary from 12,000 to more than 26,000—a sizable figure given that the army’s losses throughout a four-year attritional war are thought to be 125,000. There are approximately 700,000 Druze in Syria and their refusal to serve in the army will deal a heavy blow to the regime’s badly needed resources. The rapid gains made by the rebels in Idlib, Aleppo, Hama and Deraa were mostly symptomatic of an exhausted army that suffers from deep internal issues. During the conflict, the army has lost dozens of its long-standing officers at leadership and operational levels, and suffered a drop in financial support as more attention has been given to the National Defense Forces, a paramilitary organization directly bankrolled by Iran.

Assad can still maneuver to keep the Druze on side. For one thing, their disaffection with the regime doesn’t axiomatically equal closeness to the anti-Assad opposition. On the contrary, the al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra’s massacre of more than 20 Druze in the northwest Idlib province last Wednesday has convinced the inhabitants of Sweida that it might face a similar fate if the rebels take control of their areas.

The Druze also warred with the rebels after the latter overran the Thala air base in Sweida on Thursday. The rebels were forced to withdraw and have now vowed not push further into Sweida to avoid fomenting sectarian tensions. Still, the rebels insists that military bases near Sweida are being used to shell villages and towns in the southernmost province of Deraa. Druze religious leaders also warned Jabhat al-Nusra that they would defend their areas at all costs against any encroachment by the group or other anti-government forces.

The difficulty for the regime in managing the situation is complicated by the view in Sweida that the Druze cannot rely on the regime for protection, unlike Alawites and Christians. The Druze watched with horror as the Assad regime failed to come to the defense of Kobane last year after a withering siege laid to the Kurdish border town by ISIS militants. What would happen if ISIS came to Sweida?

More Druze are calling for a redefinition of their relationship with Assad. Many prefer to distance themselves from the regime to secure their future within an inevitable Sunni majority-led state—a position that echoes repeated calls to this effect from Lebanese Druze, particularly that community’s leader Walid Jumblatt. Other Druze have demanded that Assad offer guarantees for their future, namely by arming them. They’ve asked the regime to provide local militias with heavy weapons rather than rely on military bases that could be overrun by rebels or jihadists.

Even religious clerics who have stood with the regime, such as Sheikh Youssef Jarbou’, were clear about such expectations: “The Syrian army is capable of defending us and it still has the upper hand. Druze will not be fighting [the rebels] in Deraa or anywhere. We will only defend our areas. We have weapons but not enough to face all threats.”

Druze is the only minority group in Syria playing smart politics to ensure its survival regardless of the outcome of the war. It’s already won a major concession from the regime by exempting its youth from fighting beyond its immediate territory. If the Druze continue to write their own script for autonomy, they might be a rare success story in Syria, spared from the regime’s enmity, protected from rebel or Islamist assault, and free to carry on as they wish.

The Daily Beast

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21 responses to “Assad Is Losing His Troops”

  1. this is a remarkable bit of military theater. we are only for ourselves, seems to be the slogan. wonder if this will serve them when one side actually wins.
    will rebels remember Druze fighting them? or will it be like US during WW2 in Morocco when they said, ‘French shooting at us as we landed? never happened!’

    1. Barry would you be able to expand on the U.S./Morocco story please?
      I’m interested in finding out more. Thanks

      1. Yes please Barry answer me
        I’m trying to sound interesting so that I can make some friends in here
        Everybody hates me I don’t know why

        1. Fake o aka geo

        2. Hannibal Avatar
          Hannibal

          lol

      2. US troops landed there in 1942, thinking that they were French and thus, allies/Allies. Some Vichy officers ordered resistance but it was minimal (nothing like Normandy). Americans died. But in the interest of maintaining a united face, Allies pretended it was Germans or isolated or did not even mention it at all. Not sure if anyone was arrested. Just fog of war stuff.

        1. Lol obviously someone didn’t do their homework before invading Morocco

          1. I guess you prefer the Nazis. I thought you genuinely wanted information. Goodbye.

          2. Wtf? I didn’t even know the nzais were there.
            Stop continually jumping to conclusions!!
            I don’t agree with war full stop

          3. saying “LOL” to dead Americans is too much. The French were Nazi backers. That is why they machine gunned Americans.

          4. omfg. Get the fuck over it!
            I said LOLA to the brainless idiocy that didn’t know who was in Morocco before they invaded.
            Stop putting words in my mouth. And stop making American lives more valuable than others.

          5. Let me give you an example coz, just like certain “people” on here, you have this notion that if one doesn’t agree with you then they are against you.
            During ww2 I didn’t want Japan to win but at the same time I CONDEMN, in the strongest terms, the American use of atomic weapons on civilians.
            Can your brain understand that concept?

          6. And YES I honestly genuinely wanted information and I thank you for providing that information.

          7. Btw there’s only one daft mare that brays “good bye” then brays 10 seconds later.

  2. Joe Saad Avatar
    Joe Saad

    major minority…what a contradiction in terms.

  3. Michaelinlondon1234 Avatar
    Michaelinlondon1234

    This is all part of the west’s and Israel’s divide and conquer routine.

  4. Turkey is ready to invade the northern regions of Syria and for this purpose intends to use contingent of up to 18,000 military http://www.bfm.ru/news/296725

  5. Michaelinlondon1234 Avatar
    Michaelinlondon1234

    I had herd that some had been recruited by Israel in to betraying Syria the country that took in Druze when Israel was being formed. The border is south…Try emigrating and see whether Israel will take you in…..I doubt it. Try north…Turkey? not likely.
    Regarding this statement…
    the rebels insists that military bases near Sweida are being used to
    shell villages and towns in the southernmost province of Deraa. This is an area that Israel and the USA have been operating in….They support terrorists and thieves who are being bombed. War is nasty civilians will get injured and killed.
    The US and Israel intentionally cut of the trade routes from Lebanon and Syria to the other Arab countries…..How much has this cost you all…So the question is are you going to help the Syrian government re-establish the trade routes? Are you going to let groups of thieves and bandits stop all trade and starve you?

  6. July 11 “Al-Jazeera” reported that in the area of Tadmor (Palmyra) militants of the terrorist organization “Islamic State” captured more than one hundred government soldiers

  7. Israeli Druze have collected 10 million shekels to help Syrian compatriots

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