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The renewed violence underscores a dispute that has never been resolved: How far Damascus\u2019 authority should extend into the province, and who should control its security and administration?","The latest fighting erupted on Suweida\u2019s western outskirts between government forces and the \u201cNational Guard,\u201d an alliance of local factions formed after the violence of July 2025 and aligned with Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, one of the Druze community\u2019s most prominent spiritual leaders. Each side accused the other of opening fire.","But this time, the violence has raised another concern \u2014 whether students from Suweida can safely access examination centers set up by the government in territory under its control.","The clashes show that the dispute that erupted into violence last summer remains unresolved. The Syrian government is seeking to restore state institutions and security forces to a province that has largely remained beyond its control, while influential Druze factions insist on maintaining local security and administrative arrangements. The Druze community itself remains divided over what its relationship with Damascus should look like.","Qutaiba Azzam, director of media relations at the Damascus-affiliated Suweida Media Directorate, told MBN that the latest escalation began when what he described as \u201coutlaw groups\u201d attacked Internal Security Forces positions in the western part of the province with mortars and heavy machine guns.","Azzam said the Internal Security Forces returned fire before the clashes widened, leaving 10 security personnel and civilians wounded. The fighting also damaged the electricity network, cutting power to large parts of Suweida city and its northern countryside.","MBN could not independently verify which side opened fire or the reported number of casualties.","Azzam linked the escalation to the start of a special examination session for students from Suweida, saying tensions began on a limited scale before the exams and then spread to the entrances of the city as students tried to reach designated testing centers in the northern countryside.","Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree on Aug. 19 ordering a special examination session for Suweida students who had been unable to complete their exams during the regular session. The Education Ministry designated testing centers in government-controlled areas of the northern countryside, an arrangement that sparked disagreement within the province over the safety of the routes and the location of the exams.","Syrian authorities said armed groups prevented buses carrying students from leaving areas controlled by the \u201cNational Guard.\u201d","Suweida Gov. Mustafa al-Bakour, who was appointed by Damascus, accused what he described as \u201coutlaw groups\u201d of preventing students from reaching their examination centers.","Azzam said gunmen blocked buses, assaulted students and members of an Education Directorate delegation and fired guns into the air, prompting some students to try to make the journey on foot.","Talal Amer, a spokesman for the National Guard Forces, denied that the forces had initiated the escalation.","Amer told MBN that government troops had violated the truce when a sniper opened fire on a National Guard position, after which government troops used machine guns and mortars against residential areas.","He said the shelling killed a man and a woman and wounded a 14-year-old child, adding that National Guard fighters returned fire to \u201cprotect the fighters and residents and silence the sources of fire.\u201d","MBN could not independently verify the reported casualties.","The clashes came more than a year after the deadliest confrontation Suweida has witnessed since the fall of Bashar al-Assad\u2019s government in December 2024, violence that deepened the divide between Damascus and broad segments of the Druze community.","The July 2025 violence began with clashes between Druze gunmen and fighters from Bedouin tribes, prompting the government to deploy Defense and Interior Ministry forces to the province. The confrontation quickly spiraled into successive rounds of violence involving government forces, Druze factions and tribal fighters, accompanied by killings, looting and displacement.","In a report released in March, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry found that more than 1,700 people were killed and about 200,000 were displaced during the July violence. It said abuses were committed by multiple parties and that some could amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.","During the first phase of the fighting, the commission documented killings, torture and looting carried out against Druze civilians by government forces accompanied by tribal fighters between July 14-16. After government forces withdrew, the commission said Druze groups attacked Bedouin civilians, carrying out killings, displacement and looting. Tribal fighters then launched a new assault on Druze villages that included widespread killings, arson and looting, the U.N. report said.","Israel intervened during the violence with airstrikes targeting government forces in Suweida and later military sites and government buildings in Damascus, saying it was acting to protect the Druze and prevent Syrian forces from deploying in the south. The United Nations secretary-general condemned the Israeli strikes, while U.S. and regional mediation helped secure a ceasefire and the withdrawal of government forces from large parts of the province.","Weeks after the violence, dozens of local factions announced the formation of the National Guard under the umbrella of Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri. But the new force did not win the backing of all Druze factions in the province.","Since then, Suweida city and most of the province\u2019s villages have remained under the influence of local forces, while the government retains a presence in parts of the countryside and along the province\u2019s outskirts. The lines of contact between the two sides have become part of a precarious security arrangement that has yet to produce a lasting agreement on how the province should be governed.","In the latest escalation, the examination dispute has emerged as another flashpoint between the two sides.","While government officials blame armed groups for preventing students from reaching their examination centers, Amer said the National Guard is a military organization that does not make decisions on civilian or public-service matters. He said Suweida\u2019s civilian administration had left students and their families free to decide whether to attend the exams.","Amer acknowledged that some buses had been stopped but attributed the incidents to \u201clocal civilian groups and a number of students\u201d who refused to travel to examination centers outside Suweida city in areas they considered unsafe.","Education Ministry figures showed that, as of early September, only about 150 students had managed to sit for the exams at the government-established centers in the northern countryside \u2014 an indication of the extent to which the examination process has been disrupted. Damascus says the remaining students were prevented from reaching the centers, an account that local officials in Suweida dispute.","Adapted and translated from the original Arabic."],"audio_source_url":null,"author":"Jwan Ibrahim","available_dubs":[],"downloadable_assets":[],"duration_display":"0:00","duration_seconds":null,"embed_url":null,"id":14657,"image_caption":null,"image_url":"https://i0.wp.com/alhurra.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2026-05-19T162325Z_544595324_RC2FCLASGM9M_RTRMADP_3_SYRIA-SECURITY-EXPLOSION.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1","is_clip":false,"is_youtube_embed":false,"item_type":"article","item_type_label":"Article","language_label":"English","media_credit":"Jwan Ibrahim","micro_label":"Photo","micro_label_kind":"gallery","network_label":"Alhurra","network_logo_url":"/static/uploads/direct_network_logos/alhurra_d529a7a850f2.png","published_at":"2026-09-03T19:02:19","published_at_display":"3 Sep 2026, 19:02 GMT","sequence_badge_label":null,"sequence_count":null,"sequence_count_label":null,"sequence_frames":[],"sequence_kind":null,"source_name":"alhurra","source_name_label":"Alhurra","source_type":"scrape","summary":"Clashes have flared again in Syria\u2019s southern Suweida province, marking the most serious escalation in months between government forces and Druze fighters who control most of the region. The renewed violence underscores a dispute that has never been resolved: How far Damascus\u2019 authority should extend into the province, and who should control its security and [\u2026]","title":"In Syria\u2019s Suweida, an Exam Dispute Rekindles a Wider Conflict","topic":"Syria","translation_language":"","url":"https://alhurra.com/en/37657","video_url":null,"youtube_conversion_active":false,"youtube_conversion_error":"","youtube_conversion_status":""}],"next_num":null,"page":1,"pages":1,"per_page":20,"prev_num":null,"total":1}