Two civilians were killed in clashes that took place on Sunday between local armed groups and government forces west of the Druze-majority city of Suwayda in southern Syria, according to what two local security sources told Agence France-Presse.
Syrian media reported that an exchange of fire had been continuing since Saturday night between government forces and armed groups from the Druze community.
In July 2025, Suwayda Governorate witnessed violence on a sectarian background, resulting in the deaths of at least 1,760 people, according to what was documented by an official investigation committee formed by the authorities.
A local security source, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Agence France-Presse that a shell was fired from government-controlled areas “targeting the outskirts of the city of Suwayda, and hitting an agricultural tractor, killing two people on board.”
The source added that “intermittent clashes have been taking place since Saturday night” between government forces and the “National Guard,” referring to the group affiliated with Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri.
A second source who inspected the site of the bombing reported that “the agricultural tractor was completely burned,” explaining that the two dead people worked in agriculture.
The city of Suwayda and other parts of the Southern Governorate are under the control of local armed groups, and they are the last areas outside the control of the Syrian authorities, which seek to extend their influence over the entire country after the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad in 2024.
There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government.
The latest dispute between the two sides came on Saturday after armed groups prevented students from going to government-controlled areas to take official exams.
Damascus announced last month that it had held trial sessions for those accused in the violence that took place in Suwayda Governorate, against the backdrop of the violence.
The Druze make up about 3 percent of Syria's population.
On Sunday, the National Authority for Forcibly Missing Persons in Syria launched the National Program platform (Athar), to report missing and forcibly disappeared persons during the period of the Assad regime and the Syrian war, and called on the families of missing persons to benefit from the “Athar” application to submit reports and record data via mobile phones or the website.
The launch of the national program “Athar” comes on the occasion of the International Day for Victims of Enforced Disappearance, and as part of efforts to build a unified registry that supports searches and uncovering the fate of missing persons, and enhances the right of families to know the truth.
The authority said in a statement through its official accounts, that “every report constitutes a step towards searching for the missing and reaching the truth,” while the families of the victims of the Tadamon neighborhood massacres began procedures for filing lawsuits against the first accused, Amjad Yousef, and those proven to be involved in those massacres.
The launch of the “Athar” program was accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross signing, on Sunday, two partnership agreements with the National Authority for Missing Persons, including support for the establishment of a national DNA laboratory fully dedicated to identifying missing persons, in addition to building the technical capabilities of those working in the National Program to Identify Missing Persons at the headquarters and field levels in the legal, criminal, psychological and social fields, according to what was announced by the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Syria, Stefan Sakalian.
Since the fall of the Assad regime, the fate of a very small number of missing and forcibly disappeared people has been revealed, compared to their numbers estimated at between 130,000 and 300,000 people. There are still no final statistics on their numbers. The Syrian Network for Human Rights has documented more than 177,000 cases since March 2011, including 4,536 children and 8,984 women, while the International Commission for Missing Persons estimates the number at more than 150,000 people. These numbers are likely to increase as mass graves continue to be discovered from time to time, and the number of them discovered has reached about 73 graves, and work is underway to document the remains and record their data.
Investigations into the Solidarity massacres case, after the arrest of the most prominent accused in committing them, Amjad Youssef, contributed to revealing the fate of the children of Dr. Rania Al-Abbasi, who disappeared with her husband, Abdul Rahman Yassin, in 2013, and their six children. Last May, it was officially announced that conclusive forensic evidence had been found confirming the killing of the six children immediately after their arrest, while the parents remained unknown.
In the context of the same investigations, the fate of Bassam Al-Bahra and his son, who went missing in Damascus in 2013, was revealed in August 2026. The National Authority for Missing Persons said in a joint statement with the Ministry of Interior that the father and his son were killed on the same day they were kidnapped in Damascus.
The criminal investigations into the Amjad Youssef case are still continuing amid high confidentiality, and according to intersecting sources from the families of the victims and those of the missing, a number of families who recognized pictures of their children in the video clips of the Tadamon neighborhood massacres have begun procedures for filing lawsuits with the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus, in the context of bringing those accused of committing the Tadamon massacres to trial.
Among the families whose missing persons data registered with the National Authority for Missing Persons match the geographical and temporal scope of the operations of Amjad Yousef and the elements associated with him; The family of Siam, Al-Khatib, Al-Rifai, Al-Kurdi, and Issa. The families of the missing are counting on the results of investigations to reveal the fate of their children or determine the location of their bodies if it is proven that they were killed.
The National Authority for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons is working on preparing a draft comprehensive national law for missing persons, in partnership with families, victims’ associations, and civil society organizations. It also opened offices in various Syrian governorates to provide support to the families of the victims and collect data.
The Authority pledged to deal confidentially with the information provided through the program in accordance with its approved data protection controls, as it allocated numbers for technical assistance distributed according to governorates and regions, with the aim of answering families’ inquiries and assisting them in creating accounts and completing the submission of reports.
The authority said that its teams will work at a later stage to reach various regions and gatherings to help families who were unable to register electronically or reach the authority’s centres, ensuring that reporting is available as widely as possible.
Many Syrian civil and human rights associations and organizations commemorated the International Day for Victims of Enforced Disappearance (August 30), while the Syrian Civil Defense renewed its demand to reveal the fate of volunteer Hamza Al-Ammarin and release him, and called for respect and protection of workers in the humanitarian field, 410 days after his disappearance at the hands of armed groups in the city of Suwayda on July 16. 2025 While performing his mission to evacuate civilians, and one of the United Nations teams; According to the statement.
The Syrian Ministry of Information, with the participation of journalists and press organizations in the country, seeks to prepare a new and comprehensive media law that keeps pace with digital developments and modern media and is compatible with the requirements of the stage that Syria is going through.
The past weeks witnessed the holding of working sessions in a number of Syrian cities to discuss the specifications of the law, in preparation for the formation of specialized media and legal committees to draft the articles of the project, before presenting it to the People’s Assembly.
The proposals focused on “the necessity of facilitating access to information, ensuring a safe environment and protection for journalists, not monopolizing press coverage, formulating legal determinants and media concepts, framing laws and texts related to hate speech and national security, and refuting them in ways that are not subject to interpretation or justification.”
It was clear that there was agreement in many of the ideas that were presented during the initial sessions held by the directorates and branches of the Union of Journalists in the governorates, and they came up with a set of recommendations that were submitted to the Ministry of Information.
Among the most prominent recommendations, according to Ahmed Rashid, a member of the executive office of the “Union of Syrian Journalists - Aleppo Branch,” is the necessity of taking advantage of the current moment that Syria is experiencing to approve a modern and comprehensive media law, and to work to abolish or restrict the criminalization of journalists and legal prosecution, due to issues related to their work or publishing through social media.
Rashid also stresses the proposal for the existence of a special entity for digital media, with the formation of committees specialized in digital transformation that bring together ministries and research and educational institutions, and laying the foundations for artificial intelligence laws.
He noted that press freedom was a fundamental focus of the discussions, which concluded with laying the foundations for working to empower an independent journalists’ union, enhancing the journalist’s independence and protection, and ensuring his right to access information, in addition to setting clear controls for cases in which information may be withheld. The discussions also addressed the need to avoid using broad terms to restrict publication, and to end prior censorship of the media.
The situation of revolutionary journalists and activists received the attention of the participants in the workshops that discussed the draft new media law, emphasizing the necessity of providing exceptional treatment for them, ensuring their financial, moral and professional empowerment, and creating special training institutes and programs for this category, to compensate for the education they missed and to support their professional path.
The Ministry is only a partner
Syrian journalist Aisha Sabri welcomed the step to involve press unions and associations in the process of drafting an appropriate media law, despite her assertion that “the law must be drawn up by the Syrian Journalists Union, which is a body whose mission is to defend their rights and not the Ministry of Information, as it is a government body.”
Aisha points out that the Syrian situation requires the existence of special standards that “necessitate allowing freedom of opinion and expression, taking into account the importance of the media law preventing misinformation in all its forms, as well as electronic crimes, in order to control the blue space from the chaos of news that is increased by rumours.”
This is what Mozn Al-Murshed, president of the Syrian Journalists Association, agrees with, who considered that “a good law is a law that restricts the state’s authority over the press more than it restricts the journalist, guarantees the protection of sources and journalists, and clearly protects the independence of media institutions, with the right to establish institutions according to clear and transparent standards.”
Mozn Al-Murshed spoke about the necessity of liberalizing the media, and separating the powers and roles of the Ministry of Information and professional bodies, through “the Ministry assuming administrative and executive tasks in accordance with the law, provided that the bodies engage in development and training work, and establish codes of conduct, without restricting media institutions or interfering in their work.”
She believes that the time has come for the existence of an independent body to regulate the press and consider professional complaints, which handles issues such as correction, the right of reply, and complaints related to professional standards, and works according to announced rules. Among the conditions of the committee are that it not be affiliated with or connected to the government or major media institutions, the independence of its funding and appointments, and the possibility of appealing its decisions before the judiciary.
In turn, Ahmed Al-Rasheed stressed that press and media unions agree on the importance of including in the law provisions that guarantee the independence of journalistic work, prevent political or security interference in the work of journalists, and protect media professionals from accountability in issues related to their professional practice, in addition to guaranteeing their social and economic rights.
Aisha Sabry agrees with these findings, stressing “the necessity of protecting journalists and media professionals, and not restricting their work through the Information Crimes Law, which has turned into a tool in the hands of the cronies of the former regime to pressure journalists and activists.” She added that this protection “must be enshrined within the media law in a way that protects the work of journalists.”
Separation between media and content creation
It is expected that the draft new media law will include the category of “digital content creators” within its provisions, as they are part of the process of forming public opinion and transmitting information, in addition to regulating aspects related to security and digital transformation. However, the inclusion of this category faces objections, in light of the complexities of the nature of work and the overlap of professional descriptions.
Mozn Murshid believes that “not every content creator is a journalist, and not every activist on social media is a media person,” stressing the need for the law to set a clear description of each category, especially journalists, and define their rights and responsibilities resulting from their professional status.
Aisha Sabry believes that it is best to adopt a definition of a journalist, as “every person who has studied journalism or gained experience through practicing journalistic work, whether he works part-time or is an employee in official institutions, affiliated with the Journalists Syndicate or not.” She added, “The YouTuber, tweeter, or content creator is not considered a journalist, and his activities do not fall within journalistic work.”
All those contacted by Asharq Al-Awsat share the need for the law to regulate the relationship between the journalist, the authority and society, protect the right to knowledge, set clear limits for any interference in the freedom of the press, and make journalism free, independent and responsible, committed to accuracy, verification and professional ethics, and respecting the rights of individuals.
