Suweida Residents Report Widespread Arson, Possible Incendiary Weapons Used in Recent Massacres

During the July attacks and in the weeks that followed, various areas in the western and northern countryside of Suweida, as well as the outskirts of the city itself, have witnessed acts of arson by the forces affiliated with the Transitional Administration. The attacks targeted residential homes, shops, bakeries, small factories, and fuel stations. Testimonies obtained by The Syria Report indicate that these incidents were not accidental but followed a recurring pattern, suggesting the deliberate targeting of civilian homes, resulting in massive material losses and large-scale displacement of residents.

A significant portion of these fires occurred during military raids carried out by Transitional Administration forces between July 13 and 20, with ongoing cases of arson still being recorded in villages under the control of those forces. Residents report that most of the fires affected homes, shops, and civilian facilities in the villages of Najran, Al-Dour, Al-Majdal, Al-Khalidiya, and Umm Al-Zeitoun, as well as neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Suweida city. According to overlapping witness accounts, the materials used to ignite the fires were highly flammable and difficult to extinguish, producing strong flames and white smoke, raising suspicions of the use of explosive munitions designed for this purpose. While official bodies deny responsibility for the fires, residents continue documenting their aftermath, regarding them as a deliberate policy to empty villages of their inhabitants and deprive them of their right to housing and property.

In Suweida’s western countryside, particularly in the villages of Najran, Al-Dour, and Al-Majdal, residents told The Syria Report of large-scale arson attacks accompanying military raids and actions by allied tribal groups. Residents’ accounts reveal a recurring pattern beginning with looting and followed by the ignition of fires inside homes and shops using incendiary materials that are difficult to extinguish.

In Najran, The Syria Report’s local correspondent, who documented the damage on-site, counted the burning of no fewer than 140 shops (Editor’s note: Nujran is relatively large and serves as a local commercial hub for nearby villages, which explains the high number of shops) and an entire neighbourhood at the village’s north-western entrance from the Qarasa side, in addition to more than 20 luxury villas. The burning also affected the village’s privately owned bakery.

In Al-Dour village, Abu Rami, one of the survivors, said that General Security forces entered the village at 6:45 a.m. on Monday, July 14, and began raiding homes, looting money, gold, and light valuable items. After each looting, the soldiers would set the houses on fire using fuel or any available flammable material. He added that residents were gathered in one of the village houses—about 60 people in total—and remained detained for two days. On July 16, units affiliated with the Ministry of Defence and the army entered, and soon after, most of the houses turned into blocks of dense white flames.

Al-Majdal village witnessed a similar pattern. Hussam, one of its residents and a local defender during the incursion, said that the Transitional Government’s military forces stayed in the village for only half a day. After their withdrawal, residents entered to find many homes still burning with extreme heat, emitting odours resembling sulphur. He added that fires continued in some houses for a long time, producing light-coloured ash and embers difficult to extinguish, along with strong, pungent smells.

Accounts from residents of these villages indicate that the nature of the fire, the intensity of the flames, and the emission of sharp chemical odours are all signs of the use of non-conventional incendiary substances. Residents from the northern Suweida countryside described a similar pattern of deliberate burning of homes, shops, and small factories. Maher, one of the defenders of his village, Al-Khalidiya, told The Syria Report that after they withdrew due to heavy shelling by government forces, those forces entered the village and fires began to ignite from house to house.

In Suweida city itself—specifically in the areas of Douar Al-Omran and Douar Al-Thaala, as well as some shops in the city’s market—witnesses reported simultaneous, highly destructive fires, saying they turned walls black while white ash covered the floors. The owner of a five-storey building in the Douar Al-Omran area told The Syria Report that as soon as government forces withdrew from the area, he went to inspect his building but found it entirely consumed by flames from the first to the fifth floor. A similar fate befell most of the surrounding buildings, including a car showroom whose entire contents were charred.

A chemistry and explosives expert told The Syria Report that he examined fire remnants in the Douar Al-Omran area and observed that the pattern and light colour of the ash, as well as the prolonged burning, were consistent with the effects of phosphorus-based compounds. Phosphorus used in weapons causes intense, hard-to-extinguish fires and leaves distinctive light-coloured ash. He added that he could identify burn residues of sulphur-based materials in some locations, characterised by their sharp, stinging odour. The extent of destruction in certain houses, he noted, suggested the possible use of plastic explosives (C-4), which are in the possession only of official military units. The use of such materials, he said, is striking and warrants a technical investigation.

A structural engineer who supervised some on-site inspections of damaged buildings described the fire damage as “severe,” adding that a large portion of the buildings he examined were not repairable. He explained that temperatures rose extremely rapidly during the government forces’ burning of the houses, causing steel reinforcement bars to expand beyond their maximum elongation limit and lose their structural integrity. He added that restoration would be dangerous, as damaged components must be demolished and rebuilt.

The engineer noted that in some houses in Al-Majdal, fires continued for hours, affecting the strength and mechanical properties of the concrete and turning parts of it brittle, making the buildings unfit for habitation or practical restoration. For many, he said, the only solution is demolition and reconstruction. As for partially damaged houses, they require comprehensive restoration and new cladding that cannot be carried out immediately.

Maha, a woman from Al-Majdal, said she returned to her house in the village after a short displacement, only to find it charred—its walls blackened and its floors covered in pale yellowish-white ash. She added that even the small rooftop room where she kept pigeons had burned down, saying: “All we have left are our burned homes, after we spent a lifetime building them and sharing our lives and memories within their walls.”

The destruction of homes or private property in populated areas constitutes a clear violation of Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which prohibits conflicting parties from destroying the property of protected persons except when such destruction is absolutely required by military operations. The interpretive commentary issued by the International Committee of the Red Cross in 2025 further clarifies that this prohibition also applies to any deliberate burning or vandalism of civilian homes in the absence of absolute military necessity.

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court classifies the destruction of property not justified by military necessity as a war crime under Article 8(2)(a)(4) in international conflicts, and under Articles 8(2)(b)(13) and 8(2)(e)(12) depending on the conflict classification. International customary law enshrines this rule in Rule 50 of the Customary International Humanitarian Law, which prohibits the destruction or seizure of the adversary’s property unless demanded by imperative military necessity.

In the Syrian context, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry expressed, in a statement dated July 15, 2025, its “deep concern over the renewed escalation of violence” in Suweida calling for de-escalation, effective investigations, and accountability for those responsible for violations against civilians. This call underscores the importance of initiating independent investigations into the burning of homes, private property, and infrastructure in the governorate—before the evidence is erased by the “restoration” works currently underway in some of the affected villages.