Suwayda’s “National Guard” releases more than 20 detainees arrested for supporting government
The National Guard, affiliated with the spiritual leader of the Druze community, Hikmat al-Hijri, has released more than 20 people after arresting them on accusations of supporting the Syrian government. Two others remain in detention, Saeed al-Ghadban and Nidal Abu Subh.
Enab Baladi’s correspondent in Suwayda said the National Guard arrested around 20 people on Thursday, March 26, after accusing them of siding with the Syrian government and opposing the general stance in Suwayda.
Tensions erupted in al-Qurayya town in Suwayda governorate during an event marking the anniversary of Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, the commander-in-chief of the Great Syrian Revolt, after a dispute broke out while a statement was being read by a group known as the Veterans League.
A local source told Enab Baladi that the tension began when one of the Veterans League representatives read a statement during the event affirming Syria’s unity, before National Guard members intervened and stopped him from continuing.
The guards accused the demonstrators of supporting the Syrian government and violating the general position in Suwayda.
The source added that tensions escalated later, when National Guard members stopped several people at a checkpoint in al-Qurayya and arrested them.
Those detained included activists from the peaceful protest movement, members of the Social Committee for National Action, and several members of the Veterans League.
According to one of the detainees who was later released, the number of those arrested exceeded 20, including women. They were taken to the National Guard headquarters in Suwayda, then referred to the military court, where they were questioned and their phones searched.
The released detainee told Enab Baladi that some guards treated the detainees in a humiliating manner during transport, including shouting at them and threatening them.
Consolidating the National Guard’s grip on political freedoms
For his part, the director of the Syrian Center for Justice and Accountability, Mohammad al-Abdallah, said what is happening in Suwayda amounts to a consolidation of the National Guard’s authority and dominance over political life, stressing that political freedoms are absent under its rule.
He said that when public opinion remains silent in the face of such actions and violations of others’ rights and freedoms, it encourages the consolidation of the power of dominant actors.
He compared what is happening in Suwayda to events in northeastern Syria, where some armed factions also tightened restrictions on political freedoms and rights, calling on National Guard supporters in Suwayda to reject such behavior.
Previous attack on the “Free Will” conference
A previous armed attack targeted the “Free Will” conference in Suwayda city, which brought together political activists and sparked widespread controversy amid conflicting accounts over the identity of the attackers and the nature of the violations accompanying the incident.
According to its preparatory committee, the conference aimed to establish a political body to organize administrative and political life in the province.
The attack, which took place on January 20, was blamed on National Guard forces affiliated with the spiritual leader of the Druze community, Hikmat al-Hijri.
At the time, Suwayda governor Mustafa al-Bakkour said what happened at the conference was not an isolated incident, “but a new episode in the ongoing repression and breaking of the will of Suwayda’s free people,” as he put it.
Two local sources in the city, one of whom attended the conference and another familiar with the matter, told Enab Baladi that the attack targeted the “Free Will” conference by unidentified armed men, some of whom wore National Guard uniforms.
According to the two sources, the attack led to property damage and beatings of some of the roughly 70 attendees, though they denied that any arrests took place following the attack.
The two sources said the session had been discussing the political and organizational situation in the city, and the possibility of opening negotiations with the Syrian government, which angered the attackers because of violations committed by Syrian government forces when they entered Suwayda in July 2025.
According to the Media Directorate, the attackers abducted several attendees, in addition to vandalizing property and assaulting participants.
Sources from the network said the attackers stormed the hall while the sessions were underway, causing chaos and panic among participants.
The conference denies
For its part, the “Free Will” conference in Suwayda stated on January 21, saying there were no injuries or arrests in the attack, and that National Guard forces did not take part in the raid.
It added that an unarmed group stormed the meeting for reasons it did not understand, hurled insults, and smashed tables without assaulting those attending the gathering, contradicting the accounts given by the two local sources and the Media Directorate’s media relations office to Enab Baladi.
The statement said the consultative meeting included around 40 political currents, community figures, and several unions, and that they presented “important” interventions aimed at advancing the country and helping organize political and administrative life in Suwayda.
“The interventions did not include, as some attackers claimed, phrases that would affect public opinion or violate the general principles and known moral values on which we were raised,” the statement added.
The “Free Will” conference is an initiative launched in November 2025 by a group of Suwayda residents, including political and civil activists, intellectuals, artists, and writers.
Previous arrest campaign
Suwayda city in southern Syria witnessed security tensions following an arrest campaign targeting figures opposed to the spiritual leader of the Druze community, Hikmat al-Hijri, on November 28, 2025.
An Enab Baladi correspondent said National Guard forces backed by Sheikh al-Hijri carried out arrests targeting local figures, including Druze clerics Raed al-Metni, Marwan Rizq, Asim Abu Fakhr, and others.
Both Sheikh Raed al-Matni and Maher Fallhout later died after being tortured by National Guard members at the time.
Videos circulated on social media by activists showed torture and humiliation inflicted on Sheikh al-Metni, including shaving his mustache and insulting him.
The guard accuses them of treason
The leadership of the National Guard, backed by the spiritual leader of the Druze community, Hikmat al-Hijri, announced on November 29, 2025, that it had arrested figures it described as “traitors and conspirators” in what it called a “precise,” “swift,” and “decisive” security operation.
In a statement issued at the time, the leadership said it had uncovered a “despicable” conspiracy and “high treason,” as it described it, involving a group of “cowards and agents” who had “sold their consciences” in coordination with the “terrorist government in Damascus” and some external parties, according to the faction’s wording.
The “conspiracy” uncovered by the National Guard leadership aimed to carry out a “serious” internal security breach, according to its claims, paving the way for a “barbaric attack” targeting Suwayda and its people in exchange for a handful of money “tainted by treason,” the leadership said in the statement published on its Facebook page.
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