DAMASCUS (Dispatches) -- 
Syrian Druze armed factions launched a large-scale assault on Damascus-based forces of Abu Muhammad al-Jolani late Monday and into Saturday, attacking multiple positions in what has been described as a “multi-axis” operation.
The attacks, which took place in the southern, predominantly Druze governorate of Suwayda, resulted in heavy clashes and exchanges of fire.
Power was cut off across Suwayda amid the ongoing clashes. Ten personnel belonging to Syria’s extremist-led security forces were wounded, according to state television. Two civilians have reportedly been killed as a result of the fighting.
Syrian media said “outlaw groups” targeted positions in the Tal Hadid area and the Walgha axis. Druze militias were also said to have used drones in an attempt to target Al-Mansoura village.
Forces of the so-called National Guard coalition, the umbrella group that includes the Druze-led Suwayda Military Council formed in February 2025, claimed Jolani’s forces shelled and shot at its positions, injuring a child. 
These forces are loyal to Syrian Druze spiritual leader Hikmat al-Hijri, who said last month that the Druze community of Syria is an “integral part” of the occupying regime of Israel and praised Tel Aviv’s “model” of occupation. 
“Several Druze figures have rejected Hijri’s position,” said a source cited by the Arab Weekly on Tuesday. The Lebanese Druze religious council condemned Hijri’s comments as well.
Hijri has demanded autonomy and a separate state for Syrian Druze, while welcoming Israeli support for the secessionist project.
Israel has repeatedly declared itself a “defender” of the Druze community in Syria, and has used it as a pretext to launch attacks on Syrian military and security forces.
In July 2025, major clashes broke out between Jolani’s forces and Druze militias in and around Suwayda.
Throughout the fighting, hundreds of civilians belonging to the Druze minority were massacred by Jolani’s army – which is made up of extremist groups that were opposed to former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government during the U.S.-backed, 14-year terrorist war that began in 2011.
During the July 2025 fighting, Israel struck Syrian positions as well as government sites in Damascus.
Jolani had been demanding an end to the presence of Druze armed groups in Suwayda and the imposition of his control. Yet the fighting ended in a compromise deal which saw his troops deploy around Suwayda city, while Druze factions retained significant control. 
With Israeli support, the National Guard organization of Suwayda was established following the July clashes and massacres, and has since consolidated control in the area.
According to an investigation by New Lines Magazine released in May this year, the Israeli-backed Druze militias have allowed drug trafficking to flourish in the area.
Meanwhile, despite the escalatory rhetoric from Tel Aviv, Damascus has repeatedly said it poses no threat to Israel and is not looking for any confrontation with it – despite Israeli troops occupying large swathes of southern Syria, practically encircling the capital. 
The groups that now make up the Syrian defense ministry received Israeli air cover in battles against Hezbollah and the former Syrian army, at the height of the war in Syria, particularly in 2014.