The Syrian province of Suwaida experienced a dark night on Wednesday, marked by sporadic security incidents that significantly increased the state of security polarization due to the deaths, injuries, and capture of several of its residents.
The city of Sweida in southern Syria witnessed what is considered a large toll over a single day, the likes of which it has not seen since the events of last July, in what appeared to be a revival of previous escalation incidents.
There were multiple accounts regarding who was responsible for violating the truce between the "National Guard Forces" and the Internal Security Forces, while other parties spoke of a third party working on its behalf to smuggle fuel into the governorate.
Local sources in Sweida told RT that "a patrol of the Public Security Forces affiliated with the Damascus government ambushed a vehicle carrying 4 people between the villages of Bakka and Bard in the southwestern countryside of Sweida, which resulted in the immediate death of two of those on board, namely Suleiman Al-Shaibani and Ayham Naqour."
While the other two people were injured, sources indicate that when groups from the "National Guard" came to retrieve the two bodies and rescue the two wounded, they entered the second section of the complex ambush set up by the Internal Security, and five young men were taken prisoner without knowing the details related to the mechanism of this.
In contrast, private sources in Daraa told RT that the matter began when a group of "National Guard" forces tried to infiltrate towards areas controlled by the Internal Security of the Damascus government, so the latter exercised its legitimate right to confront these infiltration operations, which it placed in the context of direct targeting and violation of the truce.
But a third account of the incident came through local sources in Suwaida, indicating that the matter may be related to the smuggling of gasoline from Daraa Governorate to Suwaida, a trade that generates a lot of profits due to the lack of the substance in the governorate outside the government’s control, whose residents say that they are suffering from a severe siege imposed by the Damascus authority. This has been reflected in the scarcity of this vital substance (gasoline) among the various basic materials, so smuggling operations have become active in light of the economic crises and the absence of control over the illegal crossings with Suwaida.
The National Guard, for its part, issued a statement accusing the internal security forces of killing two young men while they were working on agricultural lands belonging to the village of Najran, stressing that they were plowing their land at the moment they were targeted.
The statement also pointed to a dangerous development regarding the weapon used in the periodic skirmishes between the two sides, which was the targeting of a residential house with a "Grad" missile, which resulted in the injury of three women who were inside it.
In a related context, the same local sources in Suwaida told RT that the city witnessed a campaign of arrests on Wednesday morning at the Al-Matouna checkpoint, targeting a number of civilians without known reasons, which sparked fear and anxiety among the residents.
Observers fear that this unprecedented escalation in the Suwaida governorate could lead to the collapse of the truce, which is being violated periodically, given the lack of trust between the two sides and the difficult living conditions that have led to shortages of basic materials and an unprecedented rise in prices, making the security situation in the governorate liable to explode at any moment after the unprecedented rise in indicators of violence.
