Syria has deployed troops to reinforce the southern province of Sweida amid Israeli military activity that could be aimed at setting up a base in the area, security sources said.
The troops have been sent to a front line in Sweida near where members of the Druze minority have mobilised militias with Israeli backing.
Sweida, the Druze heartland, is one of several issues standing in the way of a US drive for peace between Syria and Israel. Tensions rose after an inconclusive US-backed meeting in Jordan in August, with Israel expanding its military presence on Syrian territory in provinces to the east of Sweida.
Increased Israeli involvement in the province could boost the Sweida National Guard, an amalgamation of Druze militias supported by Israel and allied to Hikmat Al Hijri, the main Druze spiritual leader in Syria. Mr Al Hijri has condemned Syria's post-Bashar Al Assad government as extremist and called for a new constitution.
Over the past two weeks, around 1,000 Syrian soldiers, mostly from rural Damascus, have arrived in batches on pick-up trucks in western Sweida, the sources said, raising the total number of government troops to 3,000. A Syrian security official confirmed that reinforcements have been sent.
Israel has been airlifting equipment into the interior of the province, in what could be preparation to build a base, the sources said. Government forces, mainly the Syrian Army Fourth Corps, have been surrounding the city of Sweida since last year.
One of the sources said the Sweida National Guard militias had cordoned off 10 hills around the provincial capital. Israeli helicopters have been dropping off surveillance, radar and other hardware into some of these locations.
“Securing the hills would protect any base that they could be planning. It would also increase Israel’s warning capabilities against Iranian attacks,” said the source, who is in contact with National Guard members.
Last year Israel built positions inside Quneitra and Derraa governorates as a precursor to lengthening a military line parallel to the occupied Golan Heights.
“Israel has been raising the capabilities of the National Guard, so the Syrian army has to factor in the possibility of a Druze offensive,” the source said.
Escalation fears
Syrian reinforcements have been quiet to avoid attracting the fury of Israel, which last year conducted major air attacks against government forces to halt attacks against Syria’s Druze.
In July 2025, Israeli air strikes stopped a government offensive to subdue Sweida, which is majority Druze. The Druze forces remained in control of Sweida city, the provincial capital. However, government forces captured more than 30 Druze villages west and north of Sweida city. Around 1,700 people, mostly Druze, were killed.
Damascus “cannot appear to be standing still” while Israel expands its military presence in the country, the source said. For the past 22 months, Syria's central government has been run by members of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, a former Al Qaeda affiliate, after they toppled Bashar Al Assad in December 2024.
However, neither the Sweida Druze nor the authorities want hostilities to resume, the source said. The army does not want to invite an Israeli response, while Mr Al Hijri realises that hostilities would make the Druze outside Sweida, particularly in Damascus, more vulnerable to sectarian attacks, according to the source.
In March 2025, the Israeli air force struck targets near Damascus to stop attacks by pro government gunmen on Druze neighbourhoods near the capital, which left dozens killed.
US envoy Tom Barrack discussed Sweida with President Ahmad Al Shara during a brief visit to Damascus on Wednesday, according to a western diplomat who requested anonymity. In September last year, Mr Barrack brokered an unrealised deal between Syria, Washington and Jordan to solve the Sweida issue.
Syria‘s role is “pivotal” for a lasting peace, Mr Barrack said, without elaborating.
The Druze are one of three minorities in Syria whose ties with the new government have been marred by violence. In March last year, the authorities sent regular forces and militias to control Alawite coastal areas, which underpinned the old system.
In the east, a government campaign in January brought the Syrian Democratic Forces, a mostly Kurdish armed group, under government control after the US abandoned its support for the group.
There are several hundred thousand Druze in Syria, out of one million worldwide. The sect is also present in Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, as well as a diaspora community mainly in Latin America. However, its heartland comprise the Chouf Mountains in Lebanon and Sweida.
A source in neighbouring Deraa said that Israeli commanders and personnel had been travelling back and forth by helicopter between Israel and Sweida. “They also have taken men from Sweida for drone training in Israel,” the source said.
Israeli helicopters can be seen flying over the Yarouk River basin and villages in Deraa on the way to Sweida. Supplies communication devices, night-vision systems and sniper rifles have reached the Sweida National Guard, the source said.