A general view taken with a drone shows the Clock Tower of the rebel-held Idlib city, Syria June 8, 2017 Reuters

Damascus, Sweida - Asharq Al-Awsat

Unchecked proliferation of arms has hampered the daily lives of southwest Syria locals living in Suwayda, a Druze majority city close to the border with Jordan. Controlled by regime forces, Damascus is held accountable for gun control in the area.

“The regime is promoting chaos in Suwayda. Months ago, mob activity skyrocketed with the obvious intention to stifle locals who opposed their children being dragged into obligatory army serves,” a resident, speaking under the condition of anonymity, told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“After the events that rocked the city in 2018, when ISIS overran the area and killed over 300 locals, citizens were driven to unite and defend themselves fiercely against terrorists,” they added, explaining that their striving for self-defense has placed the regime, the body initially responsible for their protection, into a wedge.

Suwayda Syrians, who found themselves vulnerable and exposed, over-armed themselves.

A result of unregulated arms spreading in the city, a neighborhood school brawl escalated to the point of detonating a sound IED which left one injured. Shock waves caused severe damage to one of the school’s bus.

The incident raised the alarm on weapons finding their way to the hands of average schoolchildren. Despite the loud warnings raised by locals, regime forces remained indifferent and nonresponsive. Earlier, a triple bombing attack targeted the northern Suwayda neighborhood of Al Mazraa.

Suspicions are on the rise that certain parties are working to evoke a civil war within the community as a well-followed social media campaign backed the theory. The regime’s intended oversight suggests that it is not only aware of the deteriorating security conditions, but is complicit in their decline.

In the past two days, unknown gunmen kidnapped Maher al-Numeir, head of a village of Jbeib. Earlier, Arif Mamoun al-Nunu, a sanitary ware dealer from Damascus, was also kidnapped while visiting Suwayda.

Nunu’s kidnappers demanded a ransom of 50 million pounds for his release. The incidents were the latest in a wider series of violence and disorder that broke out last Friday, April 18, with the abduction of six traders who came from Damascus to the city to buy locally-grown produce.