Local Factions of al-Suwayda': Interview with Liwa Jabal al-Karama

There are a number of local armed factions in the primarily Druze province of al-Suwayda’ in southern Syria, where protests against the government continue to be held on a regular basis, even as the province is formally controlled by the Syrian government. One of the most prominent local armed factions is Liwa Jabal al-Karama (“Mountain of Dignity Brigade”), whose leader Murhij al-Jaramani was killed in July 2024. Although there was speculation that Murhij had been assassinated by Syrian government supporters because of his support for the protests, it turned out through his group’s own investigations that his own daughter and wife had killed him in an internal family dispute.

More recently during the course of this month, Liwa Jabal al-Karama has been engaging in training exercises. I decided to conduct an interview with Ziyad Abu Tafesh, who does media work for the group. The interview discusses the training exercises and the group’s assessment of the general situation in al-Suwayda’. It is slightly edited and condensed for clarity and any parenthetical insertions in square brackets are my own.

Q: What were the reasons for the training exercises?