Karim Franceschi Profile picture
Jul 21 11 tweets 4 min read Read on X
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, 🧵 Image
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. Image
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. Image
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. Image
9/ This wasn’t just resistance. It was a lesson in dignity, and honour, forged in blood, outside history’s polite grammar. Image
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.

✅Militias expelled
✅ Regime forces banned
✅ Convoys blocked
✅ Aid allowed

Intl. inquiry coming

They won’t rewrite this like they did the coastal massacre. Suwayda will be remembered. /END

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More from @karimfranceschi

Jul 25
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
Read 4 tweets
Jul 23
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...🧵Image
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... Image
Read 9 tweets
Jul 19
“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.’”
Read 7 tweets
Jul 19
The hordes answering the Friday prayer call to jihad didn’t pause, after Tom Barrack's Tweet. They poured into Suwayda, overran the initial line of Druze defenses, and are now carrying out a war of extermination, block by block.

As someone who’s seen HTS tactics up close. Here’s why the Syrian government is neck-deep in this. 1/4
Let's break down how core HTS veterans (responsible for the blitz from Idlib to Damascus) are now coordinating the mob’s war effort. Officially “dissolved” into Syrian govt ranks, but clearly running the show behind this campaign of extermination. 2/4 Image
An armed mob can try to take a well defended city, but chances are it's getting cut down. Tactical armbands were a late innovation in the Syrian civil war & curiously, they were adopted almost exclusively by various ISIS & rebrands like HTS. Here we can see the coordinators. 3/4 Image
Read 4 tweets
Jul 18
The scene is unreal. We’re talking trucks, buses, every kind of mass transportation vehicle imaginable, moving across Syrian government-controlled territory. Sunni Arabs are being loaded up...🧵 1/5 Image
handed rifles with zero background checks, and transported by the thousands to the frontlines to kill Druze. No one is stopping them, not Israel, not the Syrian government, not the United States. 2/5
As far as the Druze are concerned, the purge has begun. If you’re Syrian and you live in territory controlled by Ahmed al-Sharaa, today and only today (maybe tomorrow too), you’re allowed to go into the Druze heartland and kill whoever you want, however you want. 3/5
Read 5 tweets
Jul 15
[THREAD] HTS thermal units just entered Suwayda. What does that mean for the city's defenders? A look at one of the most dangerous night-capable forces in the region— and how to counter it. Image
HTS has fielded what it calls “Thermal Sniping Companies”: elite units built specifically for night warfare. These aren’t just fighters with scopes. They're trained to move, kill, and infiltrate under total darkness — while you can’t see a thing. 1/6
Equipped with AK-74s, PKMs, RPG-7s — all mounted with thermal optics — they can locate body heat, even through light cover. They’ve adapted hunting-grade thermals (e.g., Fortuna One, Pulsar Apex) for use on RPGs, DMRs, and MGs. Yes, RPGs with thermals. 2/6 Image
Read 7 tweets

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