Swept by sandstorms, the villages located at the edge of the Souweida governorate are ghostly. On the road which connects Damascus to this South Syrian province with Druze, artillery noises resonate at regular intervals. The face camouflaged by a courtyard and the Kalashnikov in shoulder, tribal fighters Bedouin rushes on a motorcycle or at the back of vans, in the direction of the clashes of clashes which still opposed, Monday July 14 at the end of the afternoon, from the Druzes militias to the government forces.
The members of the General Security-the new Syrian police-who took control, in the morning, of the dam which marks the entrance to the province of Souweida, near the hamlet of As-Suwarah al-Kubra, let them pass. Only the surrounding Bedouins who appear aboard empty vans, with the hope of going to plunder the deserted villages, are discouraged to approach under the summation shots.
The police put by the side of the road the belongings they take up on the looters: a fridge, furniture, a central computer unit, copper wires and clothes. Moheib al-Bitar and Tourfa Nawakil, two Christian sixties in the hamlet of As-Suwarah al-Kubra, are looking for what belongs to them. “The thirty Druze families in the village fled. There are only seven Christian families left here. Fortunately, the general security has deployed to secure the village. The Bedouins have looted, burned the houses and killed five druzes ”says Moheib al-Bitar.
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