Calm reported in Syria's Sweida as tribal fighters said to withdraw
There was no sound of gunfire on Sunday morning, according to a resident speaking from the city outskirts, while a Druze source in the region said there was calm in most areas.
Kenan Azzam, a dentist, described the situation on Sunday morning as "a tense calm" but told Reuters residents 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 by phone.
The fighting began a week ago with clashes between Bedouin and Druze fighters. Damascus then sent troops to quell the fighting, but they were accused of carrying out widespread violations against the Druze and were hit by Israeli strikes before withdrawing under a truce agreed on Wednesday.
The Syrian presidency had announced a new ceasefire early on Saturday but it quickly collapsed into renewed fighting, underlining the challenge interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa faces in asserting authority over the fractured nation.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
5 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump's special envoy Witkoff in Moscow today as ceasefire deadline looms
US special envoy Steve Witkoff will be reaching Moscow today to meet with Russian leadership as Washington attempts to convince Russian president Vladimir Putin to sign a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine. US president Donald Trump has grown significantly frustrated with Mr Putin in recent weeks and has given him until this Friday to make progress toward peace in Ukraine or face tougher sanctions. Mr Trump is reportedly considering imposing new sanctions on Russia 's 'shadow fleet' of oil tankers if Vladimir Putin does not agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine by Friday. Moscow 's 'shadow fleet' – vessels whose ownership is secret – transport oil around the world to evade western sanctions. White House sources say the sanctions would an easy first step to try to force Mr Putin into a truce, according to the FT. But sources close to the Kremlin say Mr Putin is unlikely to bow to the sanctions ultimatum. Yesterday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he had had a "productive" conversation with Mr Trump on ending the war, sanctions on Russia and the finalisation of a US-Ukraine drone deal.
Reuters
6 minutes ago
- Reuters
Improving Russia-US relations will take time, Kremlin tells TASS
Aug 6 (Reuters) - Improving relations between Russia and the United States will take time, Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian TASS state news agency in remarks published on Wednesday. "There is, of course, inertia in this process," Peskov told TASS, referring to the prolonged absence of a meeting between Russia's President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump. "It takes time for efforts to bring bilateral relations back onto a normal track." TASS reported that for the first time in modern Russian history more than six months have passed since a new U.S. president's inauguration without a summit with the Russian leader. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in Moscow on Wednesday to meet with Russian leadership in yet another diplomatic effort by Washington to bring the war in Ukraine to an end. Russia-U.S. ties have been marked by escalating tensions in recent weeks, with Trump saying he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in "the appropriate regions" in response to remarks by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. Trump has also issued an ultimatum to Putin, demanding a ceasefire in the war that Russia started, with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022, and a formal peace agreement by Aug. 8. Trump threatened to hit Russia with new sanctions and impose 100% tariffs on countries that buy its oil - of which the biggest are China and India - unless Putin agrees to a ceasefire in the war.
BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
Despite Trump's peace calls, Russian attacks on Ukraine double since inauguration
Russia has more than doubled the number of drones and missiles fired towards Ukraine since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, a BBC Verify analysis has found, despite his calls for a had already been rising under former President Joe Biden in 2024 but climbed sharply after Trump's election victory in November. Since he returned to office in January, recorded aerial attacks from Moscow have reached their highest levels of the his campaign Trump vowed to bring an end to fighting in just one day if returned to office. He claimed during his 2024 campaign that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine could have been averted had a president who the Kremlin "respected" held in his efforts to achieve a ceasefire he has been accused at times of favouring Russia by critics, and his administration has paused deliveries of air defence munitions and other military supplies to Ukraine on two separate occasions. The pauses - announced in March and July and since reversed by the president - came as Russia steadily increased missile and drone production. According to Ukrainian military intelligence, ballistic missile construction in Russia grew by 66% over the past data reviewed by BBC Verify - based on daily incident reports issued by the Ukrainian Air Force - showed that Russia launched 27,158 munitions between 20 January - when Trump's presidency began - and 19 July, compared to 11,614 over the final six months of Biden's term."This brutal war was brought on by Joe Biden's incompetence, and it has gone on for far too long," White House deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to BBC Verify. "President Trump wants to stop the killing, which is why he is selling American-made weapons to NATO members and threatening Putin with biting tariffs and sanctions if he does not agree to a ceasefire." In the opening weeks of the new administration, the White House issued a series of warm statements seemingly intended to entice President Vladimir Putin towards a settlement. During this period, Russian attacks on Ukraine briefly fell when compared to the final weeks of the Biden by February, when US diplomats led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's delegation for a summit in Riyadh, attacks had started to climb talks, which Rubio said were a starting point to bring an end to the war, have been followed by mediated discussions between Ukrainian and Russian officials in Turkey. Attacks peaked early last month, when Moscow launched 748 drones and missiles towards Ukraine on 9 July, according to the Ukrainian Air Force data. More than a dozen people were reportedly injured by the barrage and two were killed. While Trump has expressed anger at the escalating Russian attacks on several occasions, his mounting frustration does not appear to have had an impact on Moscow's 25 May, Russia launched its then-largest recorded barrage, prompting Trump to angrily ask: "What the hell happened to him [Putin]?"Since then, Russia has exceeded that number of reported launches on 14 occasions. Trump has responded by demanding that the Kremlin reach a peace deal with Ukraine by 8 number of Russian munitions penetrating Ukrainian air defences appears to be increasing, with explosions around the capital Kyiv becoming a daily part of life for residents of the city."Every time you go to sleep, you don't know if you're going to wake up the next morning, and that's just not a normal way to live," Dasha Volk, a journalist living in the city, told the BBC's Ukrainecast programme in June."Every time you hear an explosion or a missile flying over your head, lots of thoughts are going through my mind - I'm going to die now, things like that." Ukraine 'vulnerable' to aerial attacks Senator Chris Coons, a senior Democrat on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told BBC Verify that Trump's decision to suspend weapons supplies on two occasions and his broader approach to Russian relations may have convinced the Kremlin that it had the freedom to increase attacks."It's clear Putin feels emboldened by Trump's weakness and has increased his vicious assault on the Ukrainian people, repeatedly attacking hospitals and maternity wards, the Ukrainian power grid, and other civilian sites," he growing attacks have renewed calls for the US to send fresh supplies of Patriot anti-air batteries to Ukraine. The Patriots are the most capable and expensive air defence systems that Ukraine has. Each Patriot battery costs around $1bn (£800m), and each missile costs nearly $ has overturned the previous supply pauses and agreed to sell weapons to Nato members, who will in turn supply them to Kyiv. Trump appeared to imply that the deal would include fresh supplies of Patriot Bronk, an analyst focussing on the Russian military at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said restrictions on the supply of military equipment imposed by the White House had made Ukraine "vulnerable" to missile and drone he also noted that Russia has ramped up the production of missiles and so-called 'kamikaze' drones such as the Geran-2 - a domestically produced version of the Iranian Shahed drone. Mr Bronk said that Russia's increased stockpiles, coupled with "significant reductions" in supply of US interceptor missiles had encouraged Moscow to escalate its air campaign. Ukraine's Military Intelligence agency (HUR) recently told domestic media that Russia was now producing up to 85 ballistic missiles per month, up from 44 in April is reportedly producing 170 Geran drones per day, having established a massive manufacturing facility at Alabuga in the south of the a recent interview with Russian military TV, the facility's director Timur Shagivaleyev boasted that Alabuga had become "the largest combat drone production plant in the world", adding that his workers were producing nine times more units than initially images show the facility has expanded significantly since mid-2024, with a number of new warehouses built on the structures, including what appear to be expansions to worker dormitories, remain under construction. Senator Coons warned that the increase in production meant that Washington must make clear that it is not preparing to walk away from the conflict as some administration officials have threatened he could do, emphasising that peace can only be achieved through "surging security assistance".He added that President Trump must make it clear to Russia that it "cannot simply try to outlast the West"."In order to do that, he needs to maintain a consistent and sustained position on the war."Meanwhile, Ms Volk said that every day the Russian campaign drags on and Ukrainian interceptions fall public morale is hammered."People are getting tired because of these attacks, they really affect our lives," she said."We know what we are fighting for, but it becomes more difficult every year because everyone is getting exhausted. That's the reality." What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?
