The Druze in Southern Syria: A 'Mainstream' Perspective

In 2017, when the Druze militia group ‘Liwa al-Jabal’ (‘The Mountain Brigade’) first emerged in the southern Syrian province of al-Suwayda’, the group’s spokesman and media activist Ziyad Abu Tafesh characterised the militia as essentially being a loyalist initiative to provide auxiliary support to the Syrian army against attacks on al-Suwayda’ by Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State. Eventually, the group aligned with the widespread anti-regime protests that broke out in al-Suwayda’ in 2023, and then participated with other local factions in dismantling the regime’s control at the end of 2024. After many years of online correspondence, I was finally able to meet Ziyad in person. During this meeting, he gave me an overview of the present situation in al-Suwayda’ and the role of Liwa al-Jabal (also called Liwa Jabal al-Karama- ‘The Mountain of Dignity Brigade’). I present the main observations of this meeting here.