BICOM

More than 220 people, mostly Druze, were killed in a shock offensive involving suicide bombings and armed raids in the city of Suweida and nearby towns and villages in south-western Syria yesterday. ISIS briefly took control of a number of Druze villages before being pushed out by forces loyal to the Assad regime.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks, declaring that “soldiers of the caliphate” attacked Syrian government positions and security outposts in Suweida city, then detonated explosive belts.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that four suicide bombers targeted Sweida city while others hit small villages to the north and east and shot residents in their homes. The area is nominally under government control but has largely stayed out of the fighting during the civil war. The Observatory reported that 221 people were killed, 127 were civilians including 17 women and 5 children.

The UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Syria, Ali al-Zaatari, condemned the “terrorist bombing in Sweida city,” saying all civilians should be protected.

Suweida is known as the heartland of the 700,000 strong Syrian Druze community. It has been held by President Assad’s forces for most of the the civil war and has been attacked by ISIS on numerous occasions.

Yesterday’s attack was the most extensive operation launched by ISIS in Syria for some time. Although its area of control is hugely diminished, ISIS still occupies a triangular area South of Deir Ezzor and two small areas northeast of Suweida and in the Southern Golan on the border with Jordan and Israel.