Three Druze civilians killed after passenger van shot at in northwest Syria

Three Druze civilians were killed, and others were injured on Tuesday evening when a passenger van was targeted in an armed attack in northwest Syria.

The van that was transporting civilians was shot at by gunmen riding a motorbike on the road near the town of Kafr Takharim, close to the Jabal al-Summaq region in the Idlib governorate.

Nasif Abu Fahd, a relative of the victims, told The New Arab’s sister site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that "unidentified gunmen opened direct fire on a passenger van transporting civilians as it was passing along the road, leading to the deaths of Afifa al-Quwwa, Ahmad Shafiq, and Intisar al-Shayeb."

He added that four other people were injured. Most of the casualties were women.

Abu Fahd noted that all the victims hailed from the village of Kafr Maras, located in the predominantly Druze area of Jabal al-Summaq.

He said Syrian security forces deployed heavily around the area following the attack and conducted field investigations, setting up temporary checkpoints at the entrances to Kafr Takharim in an attempt to pursue the perpetrators.

He described the attack as "an unprecedented tragedy for the residents of Jabal al-Summaq," emphasising that the community was in a state of shock and fearing for their lives in an area that had been relatively calm in recent years.

The Internal Security Directorate in the area said, "investigations are still ongoing to uncover the circumstances of the incident, and the security forces are making intensive efforts to identify the perpetrators, pursue them, and bring them to justice, in order to safeguard the security of citizens and the stability of the region."

Jabal al-Summaq was historically home to one of Syria’s largest rural Druze populations, with estimates of around 18,000 Druze living in 18 villages in the mid-2010s.

But when the region was taken over by Al-Nusra Front in 2014 – in the early years of the Syrian war – nearly half of the Druze population fled, amid reports of killings, forced conversions, and seizure of property.

As of 2025, Druze continue to exist in the area in significantly smaller numbers, and their public religious identity is often concealed to avoid further persecution.​

Al-Nusra was an Al-Qaeda offshoot that later rebranded in 2017 to become Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), severing all links with Al-Qaeda but maintaining a hardline Islamist ideology.

It was led by current Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and led the rebel offensive which toppled longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

Since then Sharaa has tried to present a more moderate and inclusive image to the Syrian public and foreign powers.

Syrian government forces and affiliated militias have however been accused of carrying out field executions in the Druze-majority Suweida governorate in the south last July.

Druze and Bedouin Sunni militias clashed for weeks that month, and the violence worsened when Damascus sent reinforcements into the region.

Today, Suweida governorate remains outside government control, and many of its inhabitants are calling for autonomy or secession.

Syria's 14 year conflict drew in several foreign armies, militant groups, and Islamist extremists.

Religious and ethnic minority groups like the Druze say they are concerned for their future in the country amid incidents of sectarian violence, and a lack of accountability despite government promises.