Laith Al-Balous, the son of the late Syrian Druze leader sheikh Wahid Al-Balous, founder of the “Rijal al Karama” movement in south Syria’s Sweida region, announced that eliminating the Raji Falhout militia was only the beginning of eradicating “Iranian Shiite expansion” in the Druze-majority area.
“The extermination of the Raji Falhout gang is equal to eradicating Iranian Shiite expansion in Sweida, and we have long denounced and warned Sweida’s sheikhs of what is being fabricated by the intelligence services,” Al-Balous said in a video circulated on Tuesday.
Video footage of statements made by Al-Balous were released a day after he had met with a host of social and religious leaders in his hometown residence in Sweida’s countryside.
According to local sources, the meeting coincided with the release of prisoners affiliated with “al-Fajr” group. They were freed after turning out innocent in investigations into the killing of Sweida civilians and security unrest.
Al-Balous addressed public discontent stirred by the killing of six members of the Raji Falhout militia by affirming that those executed had admitted to killing Sweida’s women and sheikhs.
The bodies of the said murderers were dumped on a roundabout in the center of Sweida city last Thursday.
“The people who were killed and whose bodies were thrown at the al-Mishnaqa roundabout in the city of Sweida confessed to killing women and elderly people,” said Al-Balous.
Al-Balous leads a local armed group that is strong by the dozens and entirely independent from the “Rijal al Karama” movement, the Syrian opposition, and the Syrian regime.
It recently participated in the attack on the headquarters and positions of the Raji Falhout militia in the town of Attil and Salim on the Damascus-Sweida route.
Among the bodies dumped at the roundabout was the body of Mohammad Abu Hamdan, a prominent member of the Raji Falhout militia.
His body was discovered three days after his arrest by Al-Balous’ group. He was taken under the charge of killing Sweida locals.
