Destruction, Displacement Remain in Rural Suweida Village After July Attacks

Like with other villages in rural Suweida governorate, fighters aligned with Syria’s transitional authorities attacked the village of Najran in July this year, displacing residents, and burning and destroying numerous homes. Though the transitional government’s forces withdrew from the village after only a few days, they left behind destruction that rendered Najran uninhabitable.

Najran has a population of about 15,000, a large proportion of whom are Syrian expatriates. On the day of the assault, no more than 6,500 residents were present. According to a correspondent for The Syria Report, Najran contained more than 1,000 houses, including 30 large villas. Around 800 homes were looted and burned after being targeted with RPG shells, despite the fact that their owners had already fled.

Some notables in Najran agreed to allow the entry of the transitional government’s Public Security forces without resistance. These fighters entered the village on July 13 and remained for only a few hours before being replaced by units of the Red Bands, affiliated with Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), supported by tribal groups from the Bedouins of Suweida and Daraa. These forces carried out widespread looting and plundering, then proceeded to destroy homes and shops. They also committed summary executions, killing around 80 people as they went from house to house, which caused widespread panic and prompted the remaining residents to flee in haste, leaving behind most of their belongings.

Displaced residents confirmed to The Syria Report that they had lost their savings, jewellery and official documents, which were stolen and then burned or destroyed, while hundreds of cars were stolen from the village and dozens set on fire.

A spotter from the local Suweida factions told The Syria Report that from his nearby observation point overlooking the village, he saw convoys of bulldozers and military vehicles heading towards Najran. “A few hours after they entered, we began to see columns of smoke rising from the village. Later, we confirmed that many houses were completely bulldozed, especially the mansions and villas on the village’s outskirts,” he said.

Mohsen, one of the displaced residents of Najran now living in the city of Suweida, told The Syria Report that from the first hours of the attack, he saw bulldozers entering alongside heavy military vehicles. “The goal was not just to seize the village but to erase it from existence,” he said. “Our homes were being demolished one after another while the soldiers looted whatever furniture and household items they could find,” he added.

Notably, despite the near-total absence of resistance during the assault, the village suffered extensive destruction that even affected its livestock farms, which were burned, as well as large areas of farmland planted with vineyards and fig trees. Concrete block factories in the village’s vicinity and its only bakery were also destroyed. Furthermore, 140 commercial shops in the village were looted and wrecked, including a tobacco warehouse whose contents were valued at three billion Syrian pounds.

According to The Syria Report correspondent, the entry of the transitional government’s forces into Najran was accompanied by the deliberate targeting of vital infrastructure. Fighters destroyed the main electricity network by blowing up transformers and damaging transmission lines, while water and sewage networks were bulldozed and the wells were rendered unusable through demolition or backfilling. All this turned Najran into an uninhabitable area, making the return of displaced residents extremely difficult.

Previously, Najran had a large number of luxurious mansions and villas built by expatriates from the Al-Nasr family, who live in Latin America, the Gulf, and Europe. The remittances of these expatriates over decades had helped build the village with costly, elegant houses featuring distinctive architecture that relied mainly on natural stone rather than concrete blocks. “The village was known as one of the most beautiful in the western countryside. People took pride in their homes built of natural stone. Now nothing remains but ruins,” a displaced resident explained.

Rana, a displaced woman now living with her children in a rented home in the city of Shahba, said she owned a spacious house built of white stone. “It took us more than 10 years of my husband’s remittances to build it. Today, nothing is left. The house was completely bulldozed, and the furniture was stolen before our eyes. We are now living on aid after losing everything,” she said.

The residents of Najran were forcibly displaced to nearby towns and villages such as Suweida, Shahba, and Ariqa, as well as to many areas in the southern and eastern countryside. They live in harsh conditions in shelters, relatives’ homes, and rented houses. A large proportion of the displaced have suddenly become dependent on humanitarian aid for survival after having previously lived stable lives. One displaced woman expressed her suffering “We used to live in a large house with everything we needed. Today, we and our children sleep in a single room at a relative’s home. We no longer own anything from our former life, not even our family photos or albums, which we could not save,” she said.