Fighters attack Syrian forces as ceasefire breaks down
The renewed violence follows deadly clashes between Druze and Sunni Bedouins in July that drew the intervention of Syrian government forces and tribal fighters who came to support the Bedouins. Israel also entered the fray, carrying out strikes on Syrian troops in support of the Druze, an Arabic-speaking ethno-religious minority with communities in Israel.
A ceasefire put an end to the week of bloodshed – which killed 1,400 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights – but the situation remained tense, flaring into violence again on Sunday.
Syria's state-run Ekhbariya TV reported that one member of the Syrian government forces was killed by the armed gang.
Unconfirmed reports also suggested Druze militants had conquered an area west of Sweida from regime forces.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops questioned 'several suspects' overnight who are thought to be involved in weapons trafficking in the Hader area in southern Syria.
The Israel Defence Force (IDF) said troops entered four locations simultaneously and located 'numerous weapons that the suspects had been trafficking'.
Israel entered the conflict last month when Druze civilians were attacked by regime forces, launching airstrikes on government military positions as well as the defence ministry headquarter in Damascus.
Hundreds of Israeli Druze crossed the border from Israeli-controlled Golan Heights into Syria to defend their family members from the attacks by regime forces and Bedouin tribes.
Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, told ambassadors in the Security Council last week that 'Syrians are reeling after appalling violence in Sweida – violence that should not have happened and which also saw unacceptable foreign intervention'.
Edem Wosornu, director of operations at the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, said the city of Sweida was 'teetering on the edge of collapse'.
'The recent violence in Sweida has displaced an estimated 175,000 people... a third of the population in the governorate, where two thirds of people were already in need of assistance,' she said last week.
Ahmed Al-Sharaa, Syria's new president, has struggled to unite the country after toppling Bashar al-Assad in December last year.
Several rounds of sectarian violence have erupted since, with his regime forces accused of committing atrocities against the Alawite and Druze minorities.
The IDF took control last year of a buffer zone established in 1974 between Israel and Syria.
Israel said it wouldn't allow a 'jihadi' presence on its border after the fall of the Assad regime, while promising to protect the Druze minority in southern Syria.
The Syrian government has lashed out at Israel for attacking its territory and grabbing new territory, while some Druze in Syria and Lebanon have accused Israel of stoking sectarian divisions to seize more land.
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