The Southern Front of the Free Syrian Army captured the Liwa 52 military base in eastern Daraa province in a matter of hours on Tuesday, striking a decisive blow against regime prospects in the province.
The capture of the second-largest base in the country is only part of a rebel strategy in the southern provinces of Daraa and Suwayda that aims to bring together various groups in a united front against the regime.
As rebels gain ground in Sunni-majority Daraa, rebels have aimed at “increasing coordination between [the FSA] and other players in [Druze majority] Suwayda” Essam Rayes, spokesman for the Southern Front in Daraa tells Syria Direct’s Moutasem Jamal.
Following the recent release of two Christian men abducted from a village in Suwayda by Daraa residents, the Southern Front released an announcement last month promising to hold those involved in the crimes responsible and calling on Suwayda’s Mashayikh al-Aql (Druze spiritual community leaders) for help in investigating and preventing abductions.
“The ball is in their court now and we ask that they take the initiative” in securing the release of Daraa abductees held in Suwayda, ar-Rayes says, “[so] the kidnappers will see that there is cooperation and coordination on both sides.”
The abductions that have plagued Daraa and Suwayda residents for more than two years take a toll on residents and threaten “to provoke sectarian conflict,” he adds.
Suwayda-led abductions have largely been “a response to kidnapping operations by Daraa [residents,]” says Hafez Faraj, a defected Druze Syrian Air Force general from Suwayda province now living in Jordan.
“This discord benefits the regime,” Faraj, who defected in 2012, tells Moutasem Jamal, “especially since it is between the Sunni sect and the Druze sect. The Druze are a minority, and the regime portrays itself as a protector of minorities.”
Changing realities on the ground challenge this portrayal, as Suwayda’s Druze leadership takes an increasingly adversarialposture towards the regime after years of conditional neutrality that occasionally put them at odds with FSA rebels, who interpreted the position as pro-regime.
In recent months, aiming at a successful long-term campaign in the south, the FSA has sought to undermine familiar regime narratives that place all minority groups under its protection by reaching out to Druze Suwayda.
“Our main concern in the Southern Front and the FSA is the preservation of the Syrian social fabric, because any destabilization” like that caused by kidnappings, Rayes asserts, “will help Assad to use the Druze minority as a tool to keep himself in power.”