Wahid al Balous' home is adorned with a huge poster featuring the photo of the Druze sheikh and the motto that illustrated his entire existence: "Above the land of Karama [as members of this community refer to their territory], or beneath it". "He meant he would stay here, alive or dead," explains his successor, Laith al Balous.
The family fulfilled his wish. Laith, 29, shows the grave where his father was buried in 2015, built with marble and the traditional black volcanic stones of the region. The clan's residence, located in a village on the outskirts of the provincial administrative capital, is filled with old black and white photographs of religious leaders and others of the long list of deceased Balous family members in recent years.
The uprising against Bashar Asad came late to Sweida, the Druze-majority region located in the south of the country. Unlike the massive protests in Daraa, members of this community welcomed the protests with some reservations. The first local leader to clearly speak out against the dictator was precisely Al Balous. It cost him his life.
According to his successor's account, Abu Fahd (Wahid al Balous' nickname) began criticizing the forces of Damascus as soon as news of the detention of the children in Daraa spread. "The regime made him all kinds of offers to abandon that stance, but he continued to insist. Then, the threats began," Laith points out.
On September 4, 2015, the car he was traveling in exploded on a mountain road. The five occupants died. Laith narrowly escaped. He was in the same convoy as his father, in the car behind. The perpetrators of the attack had buried the explosives on the road, he says.
"We were so close that I saw the air burning and the explosion crushing my father's car," he recounts. Shrapnel left a piece of metal embedded in his shoulder. "When ambulances were taking the wounded to the hospital in Sweida, regime loyalists detonated another bomb next to the health center. In total, 62 people died, many of them children and women." Damascus presented an alleged perpetrator of the attack who claimed to be a member of Jabhat al Nusra, the local branch of Al Qaeda. In Sweida, no one believes that version. "It was the regime," Laith insists.
Al Balous' assassination marked a turning point in Sweida's ambivalence. The event generalized the Druze forces' opposition to the Assad Government. Abu Fahd had formed the main paramilitary force in the area a few years earlier: Rajal al Karama (The Dignified Men).
Sheikh Sleiman Abdel Baki is one of the leaders of the multiple factions included under that name. These are times of reunion and celebration throughout Syria, and Abdel Baki receives the popular Al Jazeera presenter, Faisal al Qassem, a native of Sweida, at his home today.
His arrival is accompanied by bursts of gunfire in the air. A sign of joy. Instead of coats, the members of the entourage leave their rocket launchers hanging on the wall. Weapons are part of the traditional culture in these lands, especially in such a turbulent era.
Abdel Baki, 35, also faced the wrath of the central power. In November, gunmen ambushed his vehicle and shot him 14 times. He still walks hunched over and cannot move his left hand. "I have three bullets inside," he adds.
Images and paintings of Druze leaders.Bruno Thevenin
Al Balous' murder intensified the desertion of Druze from the official army and the proliferation of local militias opposed to Damascus. Abdel Baki says there are 15 main groups, and his has about 700 armed men.
Popular protests in the metropolis of Sweida also became widespread starting in 2020, becoming massive in December 2022 when Damascus soldiers shot at one of the popular gatherings.
Workers are still repairing the governorate building, which was set on fire in those days. Collective anger led to the destruction of portraits of Bashar and the statue of the dictatorship's founder, Hafez al Asad, which adorned the main square of the town. It is now decorated with slogans like Peace for all Syrians and Freedom.
Next to them is the photo of the first Druze officer who defected from the loyalist armed forces, Lieutenant Khaldun Zeineddine, killed in 2013. A hero of epic proportions for the population of this town. "It started as an idea, then a revolution, and finally victory," reads another graffiti on a nearby wall.
Asad responded following the same pattern he had applied throughout his years in power. Unable to stop the criticism, he tried to sow chaos as in Daraa. "He recruited and sent bands of thugs and created allied militias. He also sent Hezbollah militants," Sheikh Sleiman recalls.
The Druze also accuse the forces of the former dictator of facilitating the arrival of a large contingent of ISIS extremists near Sweida, who attacked the community's stronghold in 2018 in a spectacular offensive using dozens of suicide bombers. "We managed to reclaim all the villages, but we lost 265 men in two hours," Sleiman admits.
These bloody incidents have left an indelible mark on the mentality of the Druze, who for years have maintained a kind of autonomy outside Damascus' control. Like the Kurds in the east of the country or the factions in Daraa, the groups in this region currently refuse to hand over their weapons to the authority established by Hayat al Tahrir (HTS) in the Syrian capital, posing one of the first challenges for the country's new strongman, Ahmed Sharaa.
In the case of the Kurds, Syrian Defense Minister Marhaf Abu Qasra recently rejected in an interview with Reuters the possibility of these paramilitaries remaining as an autonomous bloc within the future army without disbanding, as demanded by the leadership of these fighters, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi has repeatedly demanded in recent days that Damascus allow them to maintain the self-government they have established in the northeast of the country, a demand rejected by all HTS spokespersons advocating for a centralized state.
Clashes between Syrian groups supported by Turkey - the so-called Syrian National Army, also independent of Damascus' control - and Kurdish forces have not stopped since Bashar Asad's fall on December 8. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself demanded that the Kurds disarm. "Either the separatists say goodbye to their weapons or they will end up buried in Syria along with their weapons," he declared in front of Parliament.
The Druze also made it clear that they absolutely refuse to give up the regional freedom they have obtained in recent years. On New Year's Eve, a long convoy of HTS supporters trying to reach Sweida had to return to the capital after armed groups in this enclave refused to let them pass.