Return to calm in Sweida after week of clashes

L'Orient-Le Jour

20-07-2025

Relative calm prevailed Sunday in the province of Sweida, in southern Syria, the day after the announcement of another new cease-fire that ended a week of deadly communal clashes between Druze fighters and rival groups, AFP correspondents reported.
AFP journalists present on the outskirts of this mainly Druze city reported a morning without clashes, while humanitarian convoys prepared to enter. Since midnight, "Sweida has experienced relative calm," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said, specifying that security forces had blocked the roads leading to the province to prevent the arrival of tribal fighters.
Bedouin tribal fighters have withdrawn from Sweida
The violence, which broke out last Sunday between Druze and rival Bedouins, involved the Syrian government, Israel and armed tribes from other regions of the country, with at least 940 killed, according to SOHR.
The Interior Ministry announced overnight that the city had been cleared of all tribal fighters and that the clashes had ceased. A spokesperson for the Syrian Tribal and Clan Council confirmed to Al Jazeera that the fighters had left the city "in response to the call from the president and the terms of the agreement." President Ahmad al-Sharaa announced a truce on Saturday and reaffirmed his commitment to protect the country's ethnic and religious minorities.
Barrack: 'All factions must lay down their arms'
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a local doctor reached by phone confirmed a "totally calm" situation, but noted that no medical or humanitarian aid had yet arrived. Residents, confined to their homes, are without electricity and water, while food is scarce.
The U.S. special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, said Sunday that the country was at a "critical moment," calling for "peace and dialogue to prevail."
"All factions must lay down their arms," he wrote on X, denouncing "violent acts" that undermine the authority of the state.
The announcement of the cease-fire by the government came a few hours after a statement from Washington saying it had negotiated a truce between Israel and Syria to prevent an escalation. Israel had bombed government positions in Sweida and Damascus earlier in the week.