Syria’s new authorities set up committee to probe attacks on civilians in recent sectarian violence

On July 31, 2025, Syria’s Justice Ministry under interim Justice Minister Muzher al‑Wais issued a presidential decree establishing a seven-member investigative committee to examine recent sectarian violence in the southern province of Sweida, where hundreds of civilians were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Committee Mandate & Setup

• Created by Decree (July 31) under Syria’s transitional authority, led by President Ahmed al‑Sharaa, the body must report back within three months.

• Comprised of seven figures—a mix of judges, lawyers, and a military official (as stated by Minister al‑Wais)—tasked with:

  1. Investigating attacks and abuses against civilians amid sectarian clashes.

  2. Collecting evidence: witness statements, forensics, video recordings.

  3. Identifying suspects; any individual credibly implicated is to be referred for judicial prosecution.

• Follow‑up: Dozens of early referrals from the March coastal violence probe were handed to courts, though no senior commanders are known to have been detained. 

The fighting in Sweida province earlier in July killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands, which threatened to unravel Syria’s fragile postwar transition.

Editorial | Sectarian wounds: On the violence in Syria

It was sparked by tit-for-tat kidnappings between armed Bedouin clans, mostly Sunni, and the fighters with the Druze religious minority, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Syrian government forces intervened to end the fighting, but effectively sided with the clans.

Disturbing videos and reports soon surfaced of Druze civilians being humiliated and killed in public by assaulters from Bedouin community, sometimes accompanied by sectarian slurs. Druze groups later launched revenge attacks on Bedouin communities.

Syria’s Justice Ministry said the committee would work to uncover the “circumstances that led to the events in Sweida”, investigate attacks and refer those implicated in them to the judiciary, state-run news agency SANA reported. The committee is to submit a final report within three months.

A similar committee was formed in March, when sectarian violence on Syria’s coast killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, also a Shiite offshoot.

Attacks by armed groups affiliated with former President Bashar Assad, a member of the Alawite minority, prompted Damascus to send security forces, which descended on the coast from other areas of the country, joined by thousands of armed civilians.

Also read: With one hand on gun and the other on a camera, Syrian attackers killed Druze

That committee found there had been “widespread, serious violations against civilians,” including by members of Syria’s new security forces and that more than 1,400 people killed, mostly Druze civilians, and up to 175,000 displaced.

Its four-month investigation identified 300 people suspected of crimes, including murder, robbery, torture and looting and burning of homes and businesses. The suspects were referred for prosecution, the committee said but did not disclose how many were members of the security forces.

The outbreaks of violence have left Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities increasingly suspicious of the country’s new authorities, led by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who previously led the Islamist insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.