
‘Tense calm' returns to Syria's Sweida province after week of deadly violence
Local people told news agencies the area was calm after Syria's Islamist-led government said Bedouin fighters had left the predominantly Druze city.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Sweida had been experiencing 'a cautious calm since the early hours of Sunday morning', but warned of 'the deterioration of the humanitarian situation' including a severe shortage of basic medical supplies.
The SOHR reported on Sunday that more than 1,000 people had been killed in armed clashes, bombardment, extrajudicial executions and Israeli airstrikes since the violence in Sweida province began a week ago.
One local resident, dentist Kenan Azzam, told Reuters on Sunday morning the situation was one of 'a tense calm' but people were still struggling with a lack of water and electricity. 'The hospitals are a disaster and out of service, and there are still so many dead and wounded,' he said.
AFP correspondents on the outskirts of Sweida city reported there were no sounds of fighting, adding humanitarian convoys were preparing to enter the Druze-majority town.
The Syrian Arab Red Crescent humanitarian organisation announced they were sending 32 trucks to Sweida loaded with food, medicine, water, fuel and other aid, after the fighting left the province with power cuts and shortages. Syrian state media SANA said the health ministry was also sending a convoy of trucks.
The violence was triggered by a dispute between a Bedouin tribesman and a member of the Druze, who are a minority in wider Syria, which prompted government forces to intervene. Druze fighters resisted their entry into the province and violence escalated, turning into days of terror for local residents, including civilians. In response, Israel, which has vowed to protect the Druze community, launched airstrikes on Syria's defence ministry in Damascus and dozens of military targets in the south of the country.
A ceasefire agreement between Syria and Israel had been announced by the US early on Saturday to prevent further Israeli military intervention.
Early on Sunday, the US stepped up calls for an end to the fighting. 'All factions must immediately lay down their arms, cease hostilities, and abandon cycles of tribal vengeance,' the US special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, wrote on X. 'Syria stands at a critical juncture – peace and dialogue must prevail – and prevail now.'
A few hours earlier, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio issued a warning to Syria's new government, whose forces have been accused by Druze factions of committing abuses, including summary executions, when they entered Sweida earlier in the week.
Rubio wrote on X: 'If authorities in Damascus want to preserve any chance of achieving a unified, inclusive and peaceful Syria free of Isis [Islamic State] and of Iranian control they must help end this calamity by using their security forces to prevent Isis and any other violent jihadists from entering the area and carrying out massacres. And they must hold accountable and bring to justice anyone guilty of atrocities including those in their own ranks.'
Two government forces members posted sectarian hate speech against Druze, according to private social media seen by the Guardian's correspondent in Beirut.
One posted a video of him and two other soldiers driving through Sweida laughing as he said: 'We are on our way to distribute aid,' while brandishing a machete to the camera. He filmed himself inside a house in Sweida ripping a picture of Druze spiritual leaders off a wall and trampling it with his boots.
The last week has been the worst outbreak of violence since March, when 1,500 mostly Alawite citizens were massacred in revenge for a failed attack by supporters of the ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad, who came from the sect.
The second round of sectarian violence has tempered international hopes for the new Syrian government, which came to power last December after the sudden fall of the Assad regime. Western governments, the US, the UK and the EU, lifted sanctions in a bid to aid Syria's battered economy and economic reconstruction, after 13 years of civil war and repression by the Assad regime, which killed more than half a million people, leaving 90% of the population in poverty.
The EU said on Saturday it was 'appalled by the hundreds of victims' of the recent violence, including that 'reportedly perpetrated by several armed groups against unarmed civilians'. In a statement, the EU foreign service urged 'all parties to immediately stop all acts of violence, to protect all civilians without distinction, and to take immediate steps to prevent incitement and sectarian discourse'.
The EU also called on 'Israel and all other foreign actors to fully respect Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity'.
Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa on Saturday announced a ceasefire in Sweida and renewed his pledge to protect Syria's ethnic and religious minorities.
Al-Sharaa, who was more sympathetic to the Bedouins, had tried to appeal to the Druze community while remaining critical of the militias. He later urged the Bedouins to leave the city, saying they 'cannot replace the role of the state in handling the country's affairs and restoring security'.
The interior ministry said overnight that Sweida city was 'evacuated of all tribal fighters, and clashes within the city's neighbourhoods were halted'.
A spokesman for Syria's tribal and clan council told Al-Jazeera late on Saturday that fighters had left the city 'in response to the call of the presidency and the terms of the agreement'.

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The Guardian
42 minutes ago
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Following the March rally, Black, described at the time by Time magazine in its reporting at that time as a 'libertarian grant writer from the Los Angeles area' who decided to organize a 'comeback' event in Berkeley where 'rightwingers could 'come and speak, from start to finish, without being physically shut down''. The April event was even more violent, with opposing groups at first clashing in Berkeley's civic center park but then spreading into surrounding streets, and fighting with 'wooden poles, pepper spray, mace, explosives, bagels, milk, and fists'. The following Monday, on a since-deleted Twitter/X account, Black reportedly posted a video of himself in which he said, 'I could not be more satisfied with the outcome of the event', claiming that attenders including those on the far-right had taken a 'stand against radicalism and domestic terrorism'. 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Telegraph
3 hours ago
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At least 700 people have been killed and the local economy has been blighted by the carnage, with losses surpassing 7.6 trillion naira (£3.7bn). Among the dead are civilians punished for defying the weekly order, as well as those who have died amid clashes between the separatists and Nigerian security forces, according to SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based research firm. Ikemesit Effiong, a partner at SBM, said the strike had created a 'climate of fear and economic paralysis' in the region. Ipob have subjected locals to arson, looting and targeted assassinations, the firm said. The violence and economic blight are driving people away from what has traditionally been one of Nigeria's commercial hotspots. Ngozi left her village in Imo state for Lagos with her husband and children because of what she said were relentless assaults against people not complying with the protest. She said: 'You almost cannot see any young person in my community now, everybody left. If you speak about them, they will come and burn your house and kill everybody they can find.' One trader who sells plastic ware in the city of Onitsha, who only gave her name as Janet, said: 'I am not in support of Biafra or Nigeria but since we cannot go to work, I just stay at home with my family to be safe.' Mazi Austin Agbanyim, Ipob's Europe representative, confirmed the group had started the stay-at-home protest to demand the release of Mr Kanu, who was arrested in Kenya in 2021. Mr Kanu is a British dual national who has championed Biafran independence for years and formerly ran a campaigning radio station from his flat in Peckham, South London. Biafra briefly seceded from Nigeria in the late 1960s, prompting civil war and the deaths of at least a million people, before the breakaway was blockaded and starved into surrender. After his arrest in Kenya he was taken back to Nigeria where he has been held ever since and faces terrorism charges. Ipob claims it has since called off the protests and they are not responsible for the deaths of civilians, arguing instead that they have been 'hijacked by criminal imposters'. Mr Agbanyim told The Telegraph: 'They were paid by the enemies of Biafra freedom to infiltrate our movement, criminalise it, and cause division. They did so by illegally enforcing sit-at-home on Mondays and killing those who dare violate their orders.' Analysts say the situation has been further confused by other armed groups claiming allegiance to Ipob and factions within the group persisting in enforcing the protest. Criminal gangs are also thought to have latched on to the chaos. Polling shows that any support for the protest has plummeted as the years have dragged on. Despite Ipob's attempts to disassociate itself from the region's violence, Nigerian police have accused the group of involvement in several incidents, including a 2021 attack on a prison and the murder of over 30 travellers earlier this month. The Ipob denied responsibility for those two attacks. Nigeria's federal high court in Abuja last week said it would rule on Oct 10 whether to free Mr Kanu. Back in Aba, Emeka is convinced that a release would ease the situation, though he is not sure which way the court will go. He said: 'I just wish one day it will end.'