The coach came to the ground of a mountain follicle in southwestern Syria, shouting at dozens of young recruits, as they pushed sprints between the roads made of old car tires.
“You have to practice as if it’s real,” the trainer shouted, Fadi Azam. “Do you want to start turning you back to do it real?” He said, lifting his rifle and shooting a few rounds away from the team, the shot-paw-paw of the shot is reflected in the valley in a lively morning in late January.
“You’re lions. Lions!” Mr Azam shouted to the recruits, some of the tens of thousands of Syrian religious minority fighters, whose strong militias control the rough province of Sweida, southwest of the Damascus capital. Sweida is Druse’s heart – a strategically important area that borders Jordan and Israel – and these fighters play a small but essential role in the future of Syria.
As the Islamist rebels who removed dictator Bashar Al-Assad in December created a new government, seeking to fold different militias, including it, which sprang up during the nearly 14-year Syrian civil war in a single nationalist. A consolidated army is vital to ensuring control over the country and establish stability, but this goal has proved indefinite.
Since January, many of the strongest militias have been in talks with the government about their conditions for joining the new army. They were skeptical about the provisional president’s promises to protect the rights of the many religious and ethnic minorities in Syria.
These conversations collapsed last month after an explosion of violence against another religious minority, increasing Druse’s concerns. Violence began with an attack on the remains of the old regime on the new government’s security forces in an area dominated by Alawite, a violation of Shiite Islam. Mr Al-Assad’s family is Alawites, and during the five decades of the Syria family, they often prioritized members of the heresy in security and military jobs.
The government responded with the mobilization of its security forces, which were involved in other armed groups and armed citizens, according to witnesses and rights groups. These part-time fighters under the control of the government and others out of it-shakes hundreds of civilians in what rights groups said they were backed attacks.
Druse militias leaders also accused the temporary president, Ahmed Al-Shara, of the monopoly power. Mr Al-Shara and many in his team were part of an Islamic guerrilla group, dominated by members of the Sunni Muslim majority of Syria, once associated with al-Qaeda. They showed little willingness to first grant power to their new government to minorities.
However, when Mr Al-Shara announced a Caretaker government late on Saturday, his choices recognized to some extent the pressure to form an administration without exclusion that represents many different Syrian ethnic and religious groups. Among other things, a Minister of Education, a Christian Minister and Minister Druse, was appointed. In addition, the critical Ministries of Defense, Foreign Affairs and Internal Affairs will be run by the President’s close allies.
Another powerful militia, a force carried out by the Kurdish, which governs much of northeast Syria and supported by the United States, agreed to a preliminary agreement to join the national army, but has not yet been incorporated, expressing concerns similar to those.
If he cannot persuade militias and other armed groups to be integrated into a national army, Mr Al-Shara will face a difficult choice. It must either agree to grant some power and establish a somewhat decentralized government or only endanger part of the country-as Mr Al-Assad did during the Civil War.
Mr Al-Shara “is in a political impasse with Druse and the Kurds and does not have much leverage,” said Mohammad al-Abdallah, Syrian political analyst.
Meanwhile, Druse militias have reinforced their ranks, exercising power throughout the area to fill the security gap left by the collapse of the Assad regime. The training of the recruits recently in Sweida was part of the mountain brigade, one of the many militias that emerged during the Civil War. The ranks of the Brigade have been inflated by 2,000 fighters to more than 7,000, their leaders say, amid the uncertainty of this transition of power.
“We want to defend our people, to defend our country,” said Rakan Kahool, 28, who signed the militia in January. “Sweida’s people must protect Sweida.”
Young recruits such as Mr Kahool and veteran fighters have acted as de facto police and security forces for Sweida province, staffing points and border patrol with Jordan.
The mountain commander, Sheqib Azam, said in an interview that Druse’s militia leaders wanted to give the interim government the opportunity to prove themselves. “If the new government works in the right way, we will unite them,” Mr Azam said. “And if not, we’ll fight them.”
He has participated in discussions with the new Syrian authorities for his joining the national army that has reached a deadlock in recent weeks.
“We want to be part of the state, to have a say in political decisions,” he said. But he added, “It’s too early to give up our weapons.”
If Druse’s militias are reached agreement with the new government, their fighters will be crucial to maintaining security in the southwest in view of the threats from the Islamic State, the armed residues of the Assad regime and the criminal groups, as well as the Israeli invasions. Any disorders could sink Syria into another cycle of violence and fanaticism.
Israel’s actions in response to the collapse of the Assad regime introduce even greater uncertainty into the political landscape of southwestern Syria. Israel wants to ensure that hostile forces are not consolidated in the Syrian parts near its borders, where they could easily launch attacks on North Israel, as Hezbollah, a team backed by Iran, has been doing for years by neighboring Lebanon.
And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will not tolerate the presence of Mr Al-Shara’s Sunni Muslim forces, south of Damascus. Israeli officials have referred to these forces as extremists.
Since the Assad regime fell, Israel hit several hundreds of targets in Syria, hitting the weapons warehouses and other military assets from the former regime to keep them from falling into the hands of any hostile to Israel, according to Israeli.
Israeli officials also warned Syrian authorities that they would intervene militarily to protect Druse from any government repression, a projection that reflects the strong relationship of the Israeli state with its own minority. Druse, who exerts a religion that is a violation of Shiite Islam, can also be found in Lebanon and Jordan.
Syrian militias rejected the offer.
Although they have not yet agreed to participate in national military, militias and religious leaders have established informal arrangements with the new authorities that allow them to receive government aid while maintaining Sweida military control.
In January, Mr Azam said, he agreed to have an employee from the former rebel team of Al-Shara to serve as a temporary provincial governor of Sweida, provided that government forces are not developing in Sweida.
In the weeks of the arrival of the temporary ruler, Mustafa Yasin Baquer, hundreds of people have filled his office every day to seek support. Electricity operates for only one hour a day, residents say. The supply of water is unstable. Some want the land to be stolen by the Assad government that has returned to them. Others, who once based on subsidized bread under the old rulers, asked for similar help.
“The infrastructure is completely destroyed,” Mr Baquer said in an interview. While negotiations with Druse’s militias are ongoing, the transitional government must “move forward and try to stabilize the situation,” he added.
Many residents in Sweida share this feeling.
A recent afternoon, Janat Abu Al-Fadl, 55, fell along the narrow paved roads of the Sweida market with her daughter. While both were uncertain about the new Syrian authorities, Mrs Al-Fadl said she was optimistic about Syria’s future for the first time for decades.
“It will take time, and there will be a difficult time at the beginning of course, but in the end I think things will improve,” he said. “Before the regime falls, we had no hope,” he added. “Now, at least we have something.”
