Clashes rage in Druze region as Syria struggles to enforce ceasefire

Straits Times

6 days ago

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Smoke rising in the city of Sweida in southern Syria's Druze majority province on July 19, 2025.
DAMASCUS - Sectarian clashes escalated in Syria's predominantly Druze region of Sweida on July 19, with machinegun fire and mortar shelling ringing out after days of bloodshed as the Islamist-led government struggled to implement a ceasefire.
Reuters reporters heard gunfire from inside the city of Sweida and saw shells land in nearby villages. There were no immediate, confirmed reports of casualties.
The government had said security forces were deploying in the southern region to try to keep peace, and urged all parties to stop fighting after nearly a week of factional bloodshed in which hundreds have been killed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said clashes since last week around Sweida had killed at least 940 people. Reuters could not independently verify the toll.
Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said 'Arab and American' mediation had helped restore calm, before the clashes escalated. He criticised Israel for airstrikes during the week.
Violence in Druze region challenges Damascus
The fighting is the latest challenge to the control of Sharaa's Islamist-dominated government, which took over after rebels toppled autocratic president Bashar al-Assad in December.
It started last week as clashes between the Druze - a religious minority native to southern Syria, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and parts of Lebanon and Jordan - and Syrian Bedouin tribes.
Government forces then arrived to try to quell tensions, clashing with Druze gunmen and attacking the Druze community.
July 19's violence once again pitted Druze against Bedouin, witnesses said.
The fighting has drawn in neighbouring Israel, which carried out airstrikes in southern Syria and on the Defence Ministry in Damascus this week while government forces were fighting with the Druze. Israel says it is protecting the Druze, who also form a significant minority in Israel.
But Israel and Washington differ over Syria. The US supports a centralised Syria under Mr Sharaa's government, which has pledged to rule for all citizens, while Israel says the government is dominated by jihadists and a danger to minorities.
In March, Syria's military was involved in mass killings of members of the Alawite minority, to which much of Mr Assad's elite belonged.
Syrian security forces deploy in Walga town near Sweida, Syria on July 19, 2025.
PHOTO: AFP
Israel-Syria tensions
In a statement on July 19, the Syrian presidency announced an immediate ceasefire and urged an immediate end to hostilities. The interior ministry said internal forces had begun deploying.
Mr Sharaa said Syria would not be a 'testing ground for partition, secession, or sectarian incitement'.
'The Israeli intervention pushed the country into a dangerous phase that threatened its stability,' he said in a televised speech.
Mr Sharaa appeared to blame Druze gunmen for the latest clashes, accusing them of revenge attacks against Bedouins.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Mr Sharaa was siding with the perpetrators.
'In al-Shara's Syria, it is very dangerous to be a member of a minority – Kurd, Druze, Alawite, or Christian,' he posted on X.
US envoy Tom Barrack announced on July 18 that Syria and Israel
had agreed to a ceasefire .
Bedouin tribal gunmen engage in combat with Druze fighters in a neighbourhood in Sweida in Syria's southern province, despite a ceasefire announcement on July 19.
PHOTO: AFP
Mr Barrack, who is both US ambassador to Turkey and Washington's Syria envoy, urged Druze, Bedouins and Sunnis, together with other minorities, to 'build a new and united Syrian identity'.
Israel has attacked Syrian military facilities in the seven months since Mr Assad fell, and says it wants areas of southern Syria near its border to remain demilitarised.
On July 18, an Israeli official said Israel had agreed to allow Syrian forces limited access to Sweida for two days.
Sweida hospital fills with casualties
Mr Mansour Namour, a resident of a village near Sweida city, said mortar shells were still landing near his home on the afternoon of July 19, and that at least 22 people had been wounded.
A doctor in Sweida said a local hospital was full of bodies and wounded people from days of violence.
'All the injuries are from bombs, some people with their chests wounded. There are also injuries to limbs from shrapnel,' said Dr Omar Obeid, director of the hospital. REUTERS