After tearing down posters of Al-Assad | Calm prevails in Al-Suwaidaa, amid growing popular anger over insulting spiritual sheikh of Druze
Al-Suwaidaa Province – Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: SOHR activists have monitored ongoing popular anger in several areas in Al-Suwaidaa province over insulting the spiritual sheikh of “Al-Muwahhidun Al-Druze” (Druze community) by the head of the Military Intelligence branch in the southern sector.
In the past few hours, Al-Suwaidaa city experienced growing popular anger, while some individuals tore down posters of the Syrian regime president Bashar Al-Assad, amid ongoing efforts to defuse the tension. In the meantime, several prominent regime officials have apologized to the spiritual sheikh of Druze, while considerable crowds came yesterday from several Syrian provinces, including Damascus and Al-Quneitra, to the house of the spiritual sheikh in Qanawat town in Al-Suwaidaa countryside.
Yesterday, SOHR sources reported widespread popular discontent in Al-Suwaidaa province, amid calls for the dismissal of the head of the Military Intelligence branch in the southern region, after reports of verbal abuse over the phone by the head of the Military Intelligence branch against the spiritual sheikh of the Druze community. Meanwhile, hundreds of residents from the province and the southern region arrived at the sheikh’s house.
On the other hand, the Military Intelligence branch released a detainee arrested by regime forces, in an attempt to defuse the tension.
On January 23, SOHR sources reported that local factions in Al-Suwaidaa governorate set up a checkpoint on the Damascus-Al-Suwaidaa road, and arrested a regime officer, reacting to the arrest of a resident from the village of Al-Genina in rural Al-Suwaidaa, for unknown reasons.
According to Syrian Observatory sources, local factions of Al-Suwaidaa were deployed on the Damascus-Al-Suwaidaa highway, stopping all passing cars, and searching for regime soldiers and officers with the aim to arrest them.