Suwayda, southwest Syria – A captured fighter from the EU-sanctioned Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade has revealed disturbing details about the recent armed assault on Suwayda, alleging orders to carry out sectarian killings and the involvement of hundreds of foreign fighters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Sunday.
The confessions were made in a video obtained by the Observatory, in which a member of the group, formally known as the 62nd Division under commander Mohammed al-Jassim “Abu Amsha”, describes coordinated movement, foreign participation, and instructions to target members of the Druze community in southern Syria.
According to the detainee, between 200 and 300 foreign militants, mostly of Uzbek and Turkistani origin, took part in the assault. Some of these fighters were reportedly specialized in explosives and military engineering.
He added that nearly 800 vehicles gathered in Asharna village in the al-Ghab Plain in Hama province (central Syria) before proceeding toward rural Daraa, eventually reaching the village of Walgha in Suwayda in southern Syria’s Druze majority province, and then entering the provincial capital.
The fighter claimed that his group received explicit orders to “kill or behead” any Druze individuals they encountered, describing the attack as part of a systematic sectarian “extermination campaign.”
Read also: EU Sanctions Syrian Militia Leaders, Lifts Most Sanctions on Damascus
He also alleged that the attacking forces intentionally obscured their affiliation with Syria’s Ministry of Defense to avoid triggering an Israeli response. Some of the attackers reportedly belonged to the General Security Directorate, though the majority were not affiliated with any local tribal factions.
The Sultan Suleiman Shah Brigade is a Turkmen-majority militia founded in 2016 in Jarabulus by Muhammad Hussein al-Jasim (Abu Amsha). Now operating under Syria’s Ministry of Defense, the group is part of the Syrian National Army. It has been implicated in serious human rights violations, including arbitrary killings of civilians during the March 2025 violence in Syria’s coastal region, with reports of deliberate targeting of the Alawite community. The brigade also participated in the 2018 invasion of the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin, where it was involved in widespread abuses such as rape, kidnapping, and property seizure.
The revelations come amid increasing civilian distress in Suwayda, where activists have documented the disappearance of 80 Druze women and girls during the weeklong conflict.
Syrian activist Sawsan Abu Raslan shared a list of the missing on Facebook, urging widespread circulation. “We hold the Syrian government, civil society actors, international organizations, and the media fully responsible for the fate of our women,” she wrote.
