Battle of al-Kafr

Battle of al-Kafr
Part of The Great Syrian Revolt
Date 22 July 1925 Location al-Kafr, Jabal al-Druze, French Mandate of Syria Result Decisive Druze victory
Belligerents
France Army of the Levant	Druze and Bedouin rebels
Commanders and leaders
Capt. Gabriel Normand	Sultan Pasha al-Atrash
Strength
166	150 to thousands
Casualties and losses
Heavy	N/A

France

The Battle of al-Kafr was a military engagement between a French Army column commanded by Captain Gabriel Normand and the local Druze and Bedouin forces of Sultan al-Atrash on 22 July 1925. It occurred at Normand's encampment at the village of al-Kafr, in the southern Syrian region of Jabal al-Druze. The battle was a rout for the French, who were ambushed by Sultan's forces. Sultan's victory prompted an upswing of support for him by the Druze and by the end of July, his forces controlled Jabal al-Druze. The battle precipitated the countrywide Great Syrian Revolt.

On 12 July, the French arrested three of the al-Atrash clan's five principal sheikhs, Abd al-Ghaffar, Nasib and Hamad, after inviting the sheikhs for negotiations over complaints about the French military governor of Jabal al-Druze State, Captain Carbillet. The invitation was a ruse by the authorities to capture the heads of the al-Atrash clan, who the French viewed as the main agitators of anti-French activity in the Jabal al-Druze. The other two sheikhs, Mit'ib and Sultan al-Atrash, had refused the invitation, and upon learning of the arrest of his kinsmen, Sultan began a recruitment campaign in the mountain's villages for volunteers to join his militia. While the French sought to arrest the al-Atrash sheikhs to prevent a potential revolt by the Druze, the arrests and the deception that was used to lure in the sheikhs provided Sultan with a justification to revolt against the French.

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