The Hikmat al-Hijri militia continues to carry out systematic attacks against Bedouin tribes in As-Suwayda Governorate, amid escalating killings, displacement, and sectarian targeting, warning of a looming civil war.
Zaman al-Wasl documented new testimonies, including audio and written messages from activists and citizens inside and outside Syria, expressing their fear that the country is entering a civil war due to the "political stupidity" practiced by the religious authority Hikmat al-Hijri and his militias linked to remnants of the former regime's security apparatus.
One message read: "What is happening now due to the stupidity of al-Hijri and his militias will lead the country to a civil war with the Bedouins, as the Bedouins in Syria constitute more than 8 million people. The state will not be able to stem the anger of those who have suffered oppression, injustice, and murder over the years at the hands of the criminal, defunct regime."
The message's author added: "The state is now neither responsible nor capable of stopping those who have lost their sons or daughters over 14 years of criminality... We can only say, 'May God protect us from these difficult days.'"
Another message from an activist residing outside Syria said: "The situation being created by the actions of al-Hijri and his militias is dangerous, and he is dragging the country down a path no one accepts. The Bedouins are not a small number; there are millions of them, and many of them bear deep pain from years of oppression and bloodshed. The state is unable to control everything, and the people's pain is greater than any truce."
In recent days, the al-Hijri militia has escalated its operations against the Bedouin population, carrying out raids and field executions, including the murder of Fawza al-Ahmad and her 5-year-old son, Jassem, in a scene reminiscent of the sectarian cleansing crimes perpetrated by Assad's security forces in Homs, Aleppo, and the Damascus countryside.
Field sources confirmed to Zaman al-Wasl that the weapons used in these crimes are the same weapons the former regime had previously handed over to al-Hijri's militias under the guise of "protecting the spiritual authority," or had left them there on the day his regime fell in Sweida.
This information is reinforced by documents obtained by Zaman al-Wasl, revealing the organic relationship between Hikmat al-Hijri and the regime's State Security apparatus.
Two official documents confirm that al-Hijri received direct support from Branch 312, the most dangerous branch of the security apparatus in southern Syria.
The first document indicates the delivery of quantities of weapons and ammunition to al-Hijri, while the second shows the appointment of his son to a sensitive security position under the heading of "religious-community coordination," exposing the depth of cooperation between the religious authority and the former Assad repression apparatus.
On the other hand, local figures in Sweida and Arab tribes have called for an immediate end to sectarian incitement and the withdrawal of al-Hijri's militias from the villages bordering Daraa, warning of a widespread tribal response that could spiral out of control.
By Hussein Shishakli -
Zaman al-Wasl
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