The sandstorm-wracked villages located on the outskirts of the Sweida governorate seemed deserted. On the road connecting Damascus to the southern Syrian province, where the Druze religious minority make up the majority of the population, artillery fire rang out at regular intervals. With their faces hidden behind scarves and Kalashnikovs slung over their shoulders, Bedouin tribal fighters sped by on motorcycles, or in the backs of pickup trucks, toward conflict zones where, late in the afternoon on Monday, July 14, Druze militia groups fought Syrian government forces.

Members of the General Security Service – the new Syrian police – who, that morning, had taken control of the checkpoint defining the start of Sweida governorate, located at the hamlet of as-Sawara al-Kubra, let the Bedouin fighters through. Only Bedouins from the local area, who arrived in empty pickup trucks in hopes of looting the abandoned villages, were discouraged from getting any closer by warning shots.

The police officers lined the belongings they had confiscated from looters up along the side of the road: a refrigerator, some furniture, a computer tower unit, some copper wire and clothing. Moheib al-Bitar and Tourfa Nawakil, two Christian men in their sixties from the hamlet of as-Sawara al-Kubra, searched through the line-up to find objects that had belonged to them. "The 30 Druze families from the village have fled. Only seven Christian families are left here. Fortunately, the General Security deployed to secure the village. The Bedouins looted, burned houses, and killed five Druze," said al-Bitar.

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