Tensions and warnings of violence by government against the protesters in southern Syria’s Suwayda

SUWAYDA, Syria (North Press) – Suwayda city, in southwestern Syria, is witnessing tension after the Syrian government forcibly broke up recent protests protests, while prominent figures in the city warned of repercussions from the government against demonstrators.

A demonstration against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was launched in the city on Monday. Syrian security forces attacked the protesters, arresting about 25 people, and several others were injured as a result of being beaten.

"The mass arrests conducted by  security forces against protesters in Sayr Square will stoke hatred among the residents of the governorate," Abu Omar Atef Huneidi, one of the city’s prominent figures, told North Press.

"Instead of violence and arrests against the protesters, it would be better for the Syrian government to sit and engage in dialogue with them, and listen to their demands," Huneidi added. "The real country is the one that embraces all its people without discrimination. The nation is for all, and no one can monopolize it." 

Earlier today, Huneidi issued a statement in which he expressed his support for the protest movement, and supported all voices demanding rights and justice. 

Syrian security forces in Suwayda released a number of participants involved in the protests, whom they arrested on Monday, after a meeting of three elders of the Mashayekh al-Aqil in the House of the Unitarian (al-Muwaḥḥidūn) Druze sect. 

Suwayda is the center of Syria's Druze minority, an ethnoreligious group concentrated mostly in the country's south which speaks Arabic and follows a monotheistic religion.