Battle of Khan Arnaba

On 22 July 1919, in a context of growing hostility toward the French mandate in Syria, Arab and Druze forces attacked French troops stationed near Khan Arnaba, on the Golan plateau. The insurgents' objective was to block the French advance toward Damascus. French troops, better equipped and supported by armour and light aviation, repulsed the attack and secured the plateau. This victory marks an important stage in the consolidation of French colonial control over the region.

After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, France obtained the mandate over Syria and Lebanon. But many local populations, notably Druze, Bedouin, and Arab nationalists, refused this tutelage. The Golan became a strategic point between French Lebanon and central Syria. The French established garrisons there, provoking regular raids. The battle of Khan Arnaba is one of the first open confrontations between mandate forces and local resisters, in a climate of growing tension around control of Damascus.

The insurgents used an encirclement tactic, with night attacks and ambushes in the hills. The French riposted by forming a mobile column supported by Renault FT armour and light artillery. Rapid intervention by aviation enabled enemy positions to be reconnoitred. A bayonet counter-attack led by Senegalese tirailleurs, supported by artillery salvoes, broke the Druze lines. Fighting ended in the village itself, where the last resisters were captured or dispersed.

The victory at Khan Arnaba enabled the French to control firmly the entrance to the Golan and secure a route toward Damascus. It inaugurated a series of campaigns intended to crush resistance to the French presence in the region. Militarily, it demonstrated the material superiority of mandate forces. Politically, it marked the beginning of a long confrontation with Druze and Arab populations, which would culminate in the great Syrian revolt of 1925. It also laid the foundations for the tracing of security zones around Damascus.