INVESTIGATION INTO CRIMES COMMITTED IN SUWAYDA (SYRIA)

BETWEEN JULY 12 AND 22, 2025

The Fajawat initiative needs a financial helping hand to continue its independent investigation into the mass crime committed against the Druze and Christian communities in southern Syria in the summer of 2025. It is crucial that our project be allowed to succeed, as it is supported by witnesses and survivors from the local community and does not serve any political agenda that seeks to exploit the tragedy for ideological purposes. To carry out this public interest investigation, we are seeking to establish partnerships with media or NGOs that would have an interest in taking action.

Context

The Assad dictatorship was overthrown in December 2024 by armed groups supported by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Since then, former warlord Ahmad al-Sharaa (nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani) has established himself as the supreme authority and has worked to prevent any power sharing or administrative decentralization that would take into account Syria’s diversity and the democratic aspirations of the Syrian people. Consequently, the transitional regime is attempting to force Druze and Kurdish community self-defense movements to lay down their arms and join the Syrian national army.

It was within this hegemonic perspective that the Druze communities in the Damascus region and the province of Suwayda were targeted in two consecutive attacks between April 28 and May 3, 2025, and then between July 13 and 20 of the same year by the armed forces of the Syrian transitional regime, together with informal armed groups – mostly from Bedouin communities – from several regions of Syria.

This attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 residents of the province, including a thousand unarmed civilians, mostly from the Druze and Christian communities, as well as the forced displacement of up to 192,000 residents.

Who we are

We are an independent Franco-Syrian initiative, rooted in Suwayda. We were formed with the aim of highlighting the humanitarian and political reality of the province and its community since the popular uprising in the fall of 2023 against Assad’s dictatorial regime. We support the empowerment and self-determination of local communities, as well as the popular and democratic sovereignty of Syrian civil society in its entirety and diversity.

We were in Syria between February 27, 2025, and July 25, 2025, during which time we shot footage for a documentary film about Syrian minorities, particularly the Druze community and its self-defense factions. Thus, we interviewed the main leaders of these factions and two of the three main spiritual leaders of the community, as well as a number of fighters and members of civil society, resulting in around 50 hours of footage shot in Suwayda. We also visited Kurdish, Palestinian, Turkmen, Ismaili, Alawite, and Jewish communities on the outskirts of Damascus and in Masyaf.

Present in Suwayda, we witnessed firsthand the deployment of force and then the massacres committed by government troops and affiliated tribal armed groups between late April and late July. Our relatives and acquaintances were affected to varying degrees by the events, as victims, witnesses, humanitarian workers, caregivers, and even combatants (defense).

On July 20, we documented (photo & video) the consequences of the attack in several neighborhoods of the city of Suwayda, where we were able to confirm the reality of the destruction and serious crimes committed against Druze civilians. No foreign journalists were allowed to be present in Suwayda on the day we filmed these images, and we benefited from privileged access due to our integration into the community.

We were then evacuated by the Civil Defense “White Helmets” on July 22 and left the country on the 25th.

Project

For the following six months, we have been conducting an in-depth investigation into the attack and the crimes committed specifically between July 12 and 22, 2025, in the province of Suwayda.

This investigation already allows us to make assumptions about the planning of these attacks ahead of the mid-July incidents that officially legitimized the intervention of government forces and auxiliary armed groups. This work requires several hundred hours of additional data collection and analysis, with the aim to review the attack hour by hour and identify precisely which armed groups were involved, under whose command, and where exactly they operated.

After cross-referencing this information with data on the crimes committed, our work will then enable us to produce an accurate map of events (based on OSM) linked to an animated timeline (JavaScript).

Our findings will be made publicly available so that the victims’ families can use them for any legal purposes they wish. This publication will take the form of an online map + timeline module, a written and illustrated report, and finally a virtual memorial listing all the residents of Suwayda who fell victim to the attack.

All progressive NGOs and citizen groups in Syria have been repeating this since the regime change in December 2024: no democratic change and no lasting peace can exist without the implementation of transitional justice. Our investigation is vital because it puts an independent investigative tool in the hands of civil society.

The search for TRUTH and ACCOUNTABILITY is the cornerstone of any quest for JUSTICE.

Material & Methodology

Over the course of these six months, we started analyzing around 1,300 videos, 300 of which were filmed live by around 30 journalists and influencers who followed government forces and helped legitimize their actions. We timestamped and geolocated over a hundred of these videos (figure no. 1).

We have compiled a detailed timeline of events, which currently contains 530 entries corresponding to events and locations (figure no. 2), which we have also timestamped and geolocated based on our analysis of 620 publications from five local media outlets, 126 publications and communiqués from Druze armed groups, and 332 publications from the main Bedouin armed group involved in the attack, as well as several social media accounts providing OSINT monitoring of events.

We have also collected 200 photographs of bodies brought to the Suwayda National Hospital during the events, in addition to our own photographs and videos taken on July 20, the day before the hospital was cleaned up.

We are currently compiling an Excel database cross-referencing the time and location data for each event in order to produce a map linked to an animated timeline of events, which should enable us to shed light on the circumstances of the crimes and the actors involved.

At the same time, we are conducting an investigation to identify the specific Syrian armed forces units and the forty or so Bedouin tribes and clans involved in the attack and crimes committed in Suwayda, as well as their leaders and their affiliations with the new and old regimes, and with Islamic State (figure no. 3).

Ethical framework

We do not wish to collaborate with any organization directly or indirectly affiliated with an armed group, government, political or religious leader or party that could exploit the results of the investigation.

In the course of our search for evidence, we may nevertheless come into contact with individuals who participated in the fighting, regardless of their affiliations. These individuals will be approached as resources or witnesses, not as collaborators.

If the investigation were to shed light on crimes committed against Bedouin civilians by Druze fighters, these findings would be made public in the same way as crimes committed against other communities.  

We have already drafted a preliminary 30-page report, which will remain confidential until we have secured a partnership with one or more organizations (NGOs or media outlets) willing to support us and promote our findings.

REQUEST FOR SUPPORT

Conducting this independent investigation requires material support, as we do not have the financial means to achieve our objectives on a volunteer basis alone.

For a six-month investigation, the estimated budget is €17,000.

This support may also take the form of direct collaboration with a media outlet or a recognized human rights organization that would like to sponsor the project and pay the person from our initiative who is in charge of this investigation.

We are a legally recognized entity, registered as a non-profit in France.

Sample of the evidences collected

Above: Body of an injured young man who died (or was killed) in the corridor of the Suwayda National Hospital – Photograph taken by the authors of the investigation on July 20, 2025.

Above: Body of a Druze man killed in the fighting. The rope around his leg suggests that he was dragged behind a vehicle before being abandoned. The car bears the inscription “505,” referring to the Bedouin clan Qahtan – Photograph taken by the authors of the report on July 20, 2025.

Screenshots of databases supporting the investigation

Figure n°3 – Tribes & Clans involved