The body of Sheikh Raed al-Matni, a prominent Druze figure from the eastern village of al-Kseib in Suweida’s countryside, was delivered to Suweida National Hospital this morning—just forty-eight hours after his arrest by the “National Guard” militia loyal to Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri.
Local sources confirmed to Syria TV that Sheikh al-Matni died under torture while in the custody of the National Guard. He had been accused of maintaining contact with the central government in Damascus and with Suleiman Abdul Baqi, the city’s internal security commander and a key rival to al-Hijri.
Al-Matni was far from a peripheral figure. For years, he led an armed faction that later joined the “Military Council” formed in February 2025, following the fall of the Assad regime. Once closely aligned with Hikmat al-Hijri during the 2023 Suweida protest movement, relations between the two soured dramatically after the bloody clashes of July 2025 and the subsequent formation of the National Guard—a force widely regarded as al-Hijri’s personal militia.
A Fatal Campaign of Arrests
The operation that led to al-Matni’s death began two days ago, when National Guard units launched sweeping raids across Suweida province, detaining him and several others. Video footage circulated widely on social media shows the sheikh being violently beaten and humiliated by masked militiamen during his arrest—images that have sparked widespread outrage in Suweida and beyond.
In a separate but related incident on Saturday night, National Guard fighters stormed the home of Suleiman Abdul Baqi while women and children were present. Abdul Baqi later released footage of the raid, vowing a fierce response.
The National Guard issued a statement claiming that the detainees had been in contact with Damascus and with “certain foreign parties” to coordinate a “barbaric attack” on the province. The accusations were presented without evidence and have been widely dismissed as a pretext to target political and tribal rivals.
With Sheikh Raed al-Matni’s tortured body now lying in Suweida’s morgue, the mountainous province appears poised for confrontation. What began as a power struggle between rival Druze factions has, in the span of forty-eight hours, become a martyrdom with the potential to ignite the very explosion the National Guard claims to have been trying to prevent.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
