Tensions high as new violence spirals in Syria's Suwayda despite ceasefire
Ekhbariya's report on Sunday quoted a security source as saying the armed groups had violated the ceasefire agreed in the predominantly Druze region, where sectarian bloodshed killed hundreds of people last month.
In response to the renewed violence, the Syrian government said in a statement that 'the media and sectarian mobilisation campaigns led by the rebel gangs in the city have not ceased over the past period'.
It added: 'As these gangs failed to thwart the efforts of the Syrian state and its responsibilities towards our people in Suwayda, they resorted to violating the ceasefire agreement by launching treacherous attacks against internal security forces on several fronts and shelling some villages with rockets and mortar shells, resulting in the martyrdom and injury of a number of security personnel.'
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported four deaths in the latest violence in Suwayda, noting three were government soldiers and one was a local fighter.
Violence in Suwayda erupted on July 13 between Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze factions.
Government forces were sent in to quell the fighting, but the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops, and also bombed the heart of the capital Damascus, under the pretext of protecting the Druze.
The Druze are a minority community in the region with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Suwayda province is predominantly Druze, but is also home to Bedouin tribes, and the communities have had longstanding tensions over land and other resources.
A United States-brokered truce between Israel and Syria was announced in tandem with Syria President Ahmed al-Sharaa declaring a ceasefire in Suwayda after previous failed attempts. The fighting had raged in Suwayda city and surrounding towns for nearly a week. Syria said it would investigate the clashes, setting up a committee to do so.
The Suwayda bloodshed was another blow to al-Sharaa's fledgling government, after a wave of sectarian violence in March that killed hundreds of Alawite citizens in the coastal region.
Hundreds of Bedouin families were displaced by the fighting in Suwayda and relocated to nearby Deraa.
Israel attacks Syria again
Separately, the Israeli military said on Sunday that it conducted a raid on targets in southern Syria on Saturday.
The army said it seized weapons and questioned several suspects it said were involved in weapons trafficking in the area.
Meanwhile, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Sunday that five of its members had been killed during an attack by ISIL (ISIS) on a checkpoint in eastern Syria's Deir Az Zor on July 31.
The SDF was the main force allied with the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated ISIL in 2019 after the group declared a caliphate across swaths of Syria and Iraq.
ISIL has been trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia. Deir Az Zor city was captured by ISIL in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.
On Saturday, Syria's Defence Ministry said an attack carried out by the SDF in the countryside of the northern city of Manbij injured four army personnel and three civilians.
The ministry described the attack as 'irresponsible and for unknown reasons', according to Syria's state news agency SANA.
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