\n<\/p>\n
The trainer paced the grounds of a mountain enclave in southwestern Syria, shouting at dozens of new recruits as they drilled sprints between barricades made from old car tires.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to practice as if it\u2019s real,\u201d screamed the instructor, Fadi Azam. \u201cWant me to start shooting at you instead to make it real?\u201d he said, lifting his rifle and firing a few rounds away from the group, the paw-paw-paw of gunfire echoing across the valley on a brisk morning in late January.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are lions, lions!\u201d Mr. Azam yelled at the recruits, some of the tens of thousands of fighters from Syria\u2019s Druse religious minority whose powerful militias control the rugged province of Sweida, southwest of the capital, Damascus. Sweida is the heartland of the Druse \u2014 a strategically important region bordering Jordan and near Israel \u2014 and these fighters stand to play a small but essential role in Syria\u2019s future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
As the Islamist rebels who ousted the dictator Bashar al-Assad in December set up a new government, they are seeking to fold disparate militias including this one, which sprung up during Syria\u2019s nearly 14-year civil war, into a single national force. A unified military is crucial to securing control over the entire country and establishing stability, but that goal has proved elusive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Since January, several of the strongest Druse militias had been in talks with the government about their conditions for joining the new army. They were skeptical over the interim president\u2019s pledges to protect the rights of Syria\u2019s many religious and ethnic minorities.<\/p>\n
Those talks stalled last month after an outburst of violence against another religious minority, heightening the concerns of the Druse. The violence began with an attack by remnants of the old regime on the new government\u2019s security forces in a region dominated by the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. Mr. al-Assad\u2019s family are Alawites, and during the family\u2019s five decades ruling Syria, they often prioritized members of the sect in security and military jobs.<\/p>\n
The government responded by mobilizing its security forces, which other armed groups and armed civilians joined, according to witnesses and rights groups. These fighters \u2014 some nominally under the government\u2019s control and others outside it \u2014 killed hundreds of Alawite civilians in what the rights groups said were sectarian-driven attacks.<\/p>\n
Druse militia leaders have also accused the interim president, Ahmed al-Shara, of monopolizing power. Mr. al-Shara and many in his cohort were part of an Islamist rebel group, dominated by members of Syria\u2019s Sunni Muslim majority, that was once linked to Al Qaeda. They showed little willingness initially to cede power in their new government to minorities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n