Hard to believe, but they held. The jihadist wave came like a flood, trucks full of zealots chanting for blood, believing Suwayda would fall by nightfall. But the Druze didn’t scatter. They stood. They bled. They fought for every inch. A thread, 🧵
2/ They poured in from all over [MAP] — until the retreat order came. From none other than Ahmed al-Sharaa, the self-declared “President of Syria.”
A man who claimed he had no control over the fighters. One order, and the entire murderous circus packed up. The purge ended early.
3/ The “experts”, mostly Sharaa (Jolani) apologists in nicer suits, called Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri a troublemaker. Said he had no base. Yet the only ones still holding the line in Suwayda followed him. You don’t get that kind of defense without real backing, or a real cause.
4/ Even when faced with betrayal and calls for surrender, they fought... nine days, hundreds killed on both sides. But not thousands. Not another coastal massacre. Not this time. The difference?
They were armed. And they refused to bend the knee.
No matter the odds.
5/ That’s what made the difference. That’s what changed the equation.
Even Israeli airpower, cautious, late, and silent again, wouldn’t have moved without first witnessing valor.
States don’t act on morality. They act on pressure.
And Suwayda made them feel it.
6/ The Druze paid in full.
Regime forces gambled on tribal mobs and the sheer weight of the rabble, bused in by the thousands, to make up for the absence of tanks, armor, and artillery.
All to keep up appearances, to avoid an Israeli response.
But it wasn’t enough.
7/ They had drones, Starlink, veteran fighters in Bedouin garb, and overwhelming numbers, against a resistance under siege, cut off from water, power, internet, and phone signal by Damascus.
And still, they couldn’t advance.
Suwayda stood.
8/ You don’t get many stands like this in war. Most die quietly, disappeared in footnotes, replaced by lies. But the Druze armed resistance forced the world to look, to flinch, to speak.
9/ This wasn’t just resistance. It was a lesson in dignity, and honour, forged in blood, outside history’s polite grammar.
10/ And they came out on top.
The human wave of jihadis, for all their rhetoric, crashed against a Druze mountain that refused to move, and shattered like waves on rock.
What remains of their image of invincibility, built on the walking carcass of the Assad regime?
Foam.
And now it’s official: the al-Qaeda–linked “Interim Syrian Govt” has surrendered.
Three days ago, The New Yorker asked: How much will Trump profit from the presidency this term?
Estimates run to $3.4B, spanning crypto plays, real estate, corporate settlements, & high-value partnerships in the Gulf. 1/4
Those Gulf ties go through Tom Barrack, the most powerful envoy in US history. Part diplomat, part lobbyist, part deal-maker, stitched together to turn U.S. foreign policy into an opportunity for Trump’s inner circle to access immense wealth. 2/4
Trump, first POTUS to keep his tax returns & earnings secret, showcase a strange foreign policy pattern in the Middle East: From downplaying the genocide by religious fanatics, to recasting the organisation behind 9/11 as a viable government. 3/4
Eleven years ago, ISIS came to Sinjar. They called the Yazidis infidels. Men were lined up and shot. Women chained and sold in markets. Children stolen. It was meant to erase them from the earth.
A thread, 🧵
Thousands fled to the mountain. No food. No water. A slow death awaited. /2
Help came from the sky (U.S. strikes) and from the ground. Kurdish fighters, the PKK, cut a path through ISIS lines. They carried starving Yazidis down the mountain. Without them, few would have lived. /3
[Thread 1/5] English subtitles of Al-Hadath’s interview with SDF General Mazloum Abdi:
--> Commitment to the March 10 agreement (one Syrian land, one flag, one army)
--> Talks necessary
--> Why Paris meeting was postponed
--> Debunks fake news on travel restrictions
[2/5]
--> Syrian foreign minister statements on the Paris meeting postponement
--> Rumours about divisions within the SDF
--> Concerns after the events in Suweyda without constitutional protections #Syria
[3/5]
--> General Mazloum Abdi get pressed on the main point of dispute with the Syrian interim government:
The SDF demand of joining as a unified block inside the Syrian Army.
The highly anticipated Paris meeting between the Syrian interim government, SDF, and DAANES officials, which was supposed to be brokered by Macron, was postponed indefinitely. A lot of wild stories out there on the reasons why. 1/4
Syrian govt officials came in with a set of preconditions that the SDF was expected to accept just to sit at the table:
- SDF to disband / lay down arms
- DAANES to submit not as a partner, but as a subject under full government authority. 2/5
The Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan, played a major role in backing this absurd demand, which not only blew up the meeting that was supposed to implement the March agreement, but now sets the stage for a dangerous military confrontation. 3/4
U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack brokered Trump’s Gulf alliances. Now he’s running PR for a regime that executed civilians in hospital beds—while scheming to dismantle the SDF.
Let's follow the money, and the bodies...🧵
1/ Over the past week, Suweyda endured a brutal siege: a city cut off, its people surrounded by thousands of jihadists. Massacres followed. Yet Tom Barrack, is lying through his teeth:
"The world is confused, the Syrian troops haven't gone in the city..."
2/ In 2017, while angling for a senior U.S. diplomatic role, Tom Barrack was secretly lobbying for the UAE—introducing Gulf royals to Trump & Kushner. Charged with obstruction & false statements, he nearly became America’s envoy. Imagine the risk...
“What’s happening inside Suwayda right now is darker, more vile, and more revolting than anything we’ve seen in the past seven days.”
A thread based on direct testimony from the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. #Suwayda #Syria
2/ “We are witnessing executions, just like the case of Munif, a fighter from northern Aleppo, whose head was severed.”
“They asked me not to publish it. I did. Because this is the truth. So far, we’ve documented 185 summary executions, and counting.”
3/ “The clashes in Suwayda are at their most intense. Fighters have stormed in from Al-Ghayah, just a few kilometers from the Interior Ministry spokesperson now claiming:
‘The tribes have nothing to do with us.’”