Demonstrators are furious with the Assad government over rising prices, power outages, food and fuel shortages.
At least two people were killed, including a police officer, when protesters stormed a provincial government building in the southern Syrian city of Sweida in a rare anti-government protest against rising prices and other economic hardships.
Activist media collective Suwayda 24 and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based surveillance group, confirmed the two deaths on Sunday and said four people had been hospitalized with gunshot wounds in the Druze-majority city.
Suwayda24 posted images on social media showing dozens of protesters calling for the overthrow of the regime while security forces stood guard in front of the building.
Other images showed a burning military vehicle and burning tires on the city’s main streets.
“There is a large deployment of security forces in the area and gunfire can still be heard,” Rayan Maalouf, who runs the Suwayda 24 collective, told The Associated Press.
Demonstrators reportedly tore down portraits of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad [File: SANA/Handout via Reuters]
The Syrian interior minister said in a statement that the people who searched the building were armed and smashed furniture, smashed windows and looted files. The statement said a “group of outlaws” killed a police officer while attempting to storm police headquarters.
State television said “lawbreakers” stormed the provincial government building and “set official documents and files on fire.”
Rare anti-government protest
Anti-government demonstrations are rare in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad crushed a pro-democracy insurgency more than a decade ago. Since the peaceful uprising in 2011 turned into a bloody war, nearly half a million people have been killed and half the country’s population displaced.
Assad survived, but the conflict has plunged Syria into poverty. People also face food and energy shortages.
Although Sweida province, which borders Jordan, has generally been spared the worst of the war, tensions between residents and the Assad regime have simmered, and anti-corruption protests have erupted there in recent years.
Syria’s economy has been hit by both the long-running war and Western sanctions against Damascus, and the value of the Syrian pound has plummeted.
In this screenshot, taken from a social media video, people clash with security forces at a protest in Sweida [Suwayda 24/via Reuters]
Sweida and other cities have been hit hard by nationwide electricity rationing and chronic fuel shortages, severely affecting daily life. The government has announced further austerity measures in recent days, including increased electricity rationing.
Ninety percent of the population now lives below the poverty line and 12.4 million people do not have enough to eat, according to the United Nations.
In February, hundreds of people protested in Sweida to demand better living conditions and democratic rule, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at the time. Smaller protests took place there in 2020.
Nashaat al-Atrash, a Druze member of the Syrian parliament, condemned the protesters for the raid on the provincial building and called for calm.
“All of Syria is going through an economic crisis,” he said on Syrian Al-Ikhbaria TV, claiming that outside forces may be trying to stoke tensions through the demonstrations.
Syrians demonstrate against poor economic conditions in Sweida. in a rare anti-government protest [Suwayda 24/via Reuters]