Calm returns to Syria as fighters pull back
With hundreds of people reported killed, the Sweida bloodshed has marked a major test for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, prompting Israel to carry out airstrikes last week as it declared support for the Druze. Fighting continued on Saturday despite a ceasefire call.
On Sunday morning, residents reported no sound of gunfire in the city after the interior ministry announced late on Saturday that Bedouin tribal fighters had left.
Reuters images showed interior ministry security forces deployed in an area near the city, blocking the road in front of members of tribes congregated there.
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.
Another Sweida resident, Raed Khazaal, said humanitarian aid was urgently needed in the city. "Houses are destroyed ... The smell of corpses is spread throughout the national hospital", he said in a voice message to Reuters from inside Sweida.
Tom Barrack, the U.S. envoy for Syria, said "brutal acts by warring factions on the ground undermine the government's authority and disrupt any semblance of order".
"All factions must immediately lay down their arms, cease hostilities, and abandon cycles of tribal vengeance. Syria stands at a critical juncture—peace and dialogue must prevail—and prevail now," he wrote on X.
The Druze are a small but influential minority group present in Syria, Israel and Lebanon who follow a religion that is an offshoot of a branch of Shi'ite Islam. Some hardline Sunnis deem their beliefs heretical.
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The fighting began a week ago with clashes between Bedouin and Druze fighters. Damascus then sent troops to quell the fighting, but they were drawn into the violence and accused of carrying out widespread violations against the Druze.
Residents of the predominantly Druze city have described friends and neighbours being shot at close range in their homes or in the streets by Syrian troops, identified by their fatigues and the insignia on them.
Sharaa, in a speech on Thursday, promised to protect the rights of Druze, accountability for violations, and also vowed to hold to account those who committed violations against "our Druze people". He has blamed the violence on "outlaw groups".
Israel bombed Syrian government forces in Sweida and also hit the defense ministry in Damascus last week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday Israel had established a policy demanding the demilitarisation of a swathe of territory near the border, stretching from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the Druze Mountain, east of Sweida. He reiterated Israel's policy to protect the Druze.
The United States however said it did not support the Israeli strikes. On Friday, an Israeli official said that Israel agreed to allow Syrian forces limited access to the Sweida area for two days.
A Syrian security source told Reuters that internal security forces had taken up positions near Sweida, establishing checkpoints in both the western and eastern parts of the province where retreating tribal fighters had gathered.
The source said some tribal groups had already returned to Damascus and northern areas.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, has said clashes since last week around Sweida had killed at least 940 people. Reuters could not independently verify the toll.
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The National
an hour ago
- The National
Syria's Druze count the toll of another deadly episode in long struggle for survival
The once invincible Sweida in southern Syria, the epicentre of a revolt against French colonial rule, was counting its dead on Monday after a week of fighting that left its mostly Druze inhabitants bowed, but not defeated. A ceasefire appeared to hold as Monday was the first day without clashes in a week. Authorities were moving Bedouin civilians out, but aid convoys were still to enter. Local branches of the Health Ministry sent teams to count the dead and take bodies to hospitals, where mortuaries were full after three waves of incursions by government forces and auxiliaries in the past week. Last year, Sweida was a centre of a non-violent uprising against the Assad regime when peaceful protest in Syria had long been crushed. The Druze are an offshoot of Islam, whose history is defined by struggles for survival. US diplomatic pressure on Syrian authorities, and Israeli raids, halted the offensive on Sunday. However the area, comprising the heartland of the ancient sect, remains under siege by the central authorities. Damascus said Druze militias killed hundreds of Sunnis in Sweida during the clashes in the provincial capital, which were sparked by sectarian abductions. Khaldoun, a Druze surgeon at the main Sweida National Hospital, told The National Syrian military and Interior Ministry forces who arrived in the city last week 'supposedly to stop clashes and spread security, turned out to be monsters.' Women were among dead, felled by snipers and other government triggermen. Dr Khaldoun said 'medical teams were shot dead while trying to save people.' He said at least the bodies of 500 people have been brought to the hospital or died while receiving treatment there since government attacks on Sweida began. Jiryes al Ishaq, a Christian who lived on a farmland on the western outskirts of Sweida, said he fled the government advance to the Greek Orthodox parish in the centre of the city. 'Pillage has been widespread but I don't know what happened to my land,' he said. 'We are provided for at the parish, because the authorities have vowed not to harm [the compound], but the rest of the city is devastated,' he said, pointing out unconfirmed reports that government militants had killed a Christian family of a dozen members in Sweida. The government had said during the offensive that killings would result in prosecutions. Fighting in Sweida - in pictures Sweida, with its basalt rock landscape, is home to 270,000 Druze who comprise most members of the sect left in Syria after waves of migration, particularly during the 2011 to 2024 civil war. There are an estimated one million Druze worldwide, mainly in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and a diaspora in Latin America. From 1925 to 1927, the Druze, led by Sultan Basha Al Atrash, mounted a revolt against French rule. The revolt failed but it was instrumental in projecting the image of the Druze as being Syrians first in a predominantly Sunni country. Sultan Al Atrash became a figure in the narrative of Arab nationalists across the Middle East. Bedouin tribes, some of whom have been attacking Sweida, had joined him in the revolt. Sunni merchants in Damascus, who later supported former leader Bashar Al Assad and the post Assad order, financed the Druze armed struggle against the French as thousands of Druze fighters were killed with superior French firepower. Sultan Al Atrash died in 1982. However, one of his daughters, Muntaha, led peaceful resistance in Sweida when the March 2011 protest movement broke out. In the last 15 months of Mr Al Assad's rule, Sweida renewed the civil disobedience movement demanding the removal of the regime. Among its leaders was Sheikh Hikmat Al Hijri, the most senior of a triumvirate comprising the Druze spiritual leadership. Suhail Tebian, a prominent Druze civil figure who had opposed an increased arming of the Druze under Mr Al Hijri since the regime fell, said the community has had no choice but to resist government forces comprising religious extremists, although the cost has been high. 'Sweida has become a disaster zone,' Mr Thebian said. There is nothing more I can tell you. I have survived, for now'. Mr Al Hijri resisted attempts by the new authorities – formerly Hayat Tahrir Al Sham – to control Sweida, saying that new security forces should be drawn from residents of the province. He labelled the government as extremists and undemocratic, pointing out the lack of any independent branches in the new political system. So, when clashes began in Sweida last week between Druze and Sunni residents of Bedouin origins, Mr Al Hijri refused government security forces in the city. This set the scene for a week of incursions in which the government recruited rural Sunnis on its side, from Sweida and nearby Deraa. The authorities also taken by bus in more Sunnis, this time Bedouin, from the province of Deir Ezzor, in the eastern fringes of Syria, and from the governorate of Aleppo. But even Druze who have been critical of Mr Al Hijri's handling of the crisis said the blood shed by the government forces and its auxiliaries have robbed it of credibility. 'They have cut the internet to make it difficult to know and document the size of the atrocities they committed,' said Nawaf, another Druze doctor. An engineer in Sweida said the city and nearby villages 'have been devastated'. 'We can't even reach them,' he said. 'Bodies are still lying in open fields. There is no [transport] vehicles. No gasoline. I went to see the [main] hospital, it can't receive anyone. It is out of service.'
The National
2 hours ago
- The National
Sweida ceasefire is welcome but shouldn't be mistaken for a return to normality
A US-brokered ceasefire last Thursday was thought to have brought an end to the most intense violence the southern Syrian province of Sweida has experienced in decades. What began on July 13 as a localised dispute between Druze and Bedouin groups quickly escalated into a full-scale military confrontation between Druze fighters and transitional government-aligned forces. In just four days, the clashes claimed at least 516 lives and displaced many more, shaking the foundations of Syria's already fragile transition. With the fighting having subsided briefly, only for it to resume over the weekend before ending on Sunday, the cessation of hostilities is, at best, tenuous. It should certainly not be mistaken for a return to normality. Early signs indicate that the ceasefire largely restores the pre-conflict status quo, with local Druze factions resuming de facto control over Sweida. Halting the violence is a welcome step, but it does not amount to a resolution. Unless the deeper drivers of the conflict – including political exclusion and contested authority – are meaningfully addressed, the truce risks becoming little more than a brief pause before the next eruption. Sweida's violence began with the abduction of a Druze trader by individuals reportedly linked to Bedouin tribes in the region. In retaliation, a wave of reciprocal abductions broke out, eventually devolving into broader intercommunal violence. Such incidents are not unprecedented in southern Syria, where mistrust and unresolved grievances run deep. What set this episode apart was the decision of the country's transitional authorities to intervene militarily. Damascus presented the deployment of security forces as a step to restore order. But people in Sweida, at least those who actively resisted, viewed it as a power grab. This reaction stems from long-standing disputes between local leaders and the transitional government – particularly over governance, security arrangements and the identity of the future Syrian state. Sweida's notables have consistently advocated for decentralised governance and locally managed security structures tailored to the community's needs. In contrast, Damascus remains committed to a rigid, top-down model. On broader questions of identity and political inclusion, Sweida's calls for a secular and pluralistic system have largely been ignored. These unresolved differences, compounded by repeated failures in negotiation, help explain why Damascus's intervention was viewed not as a stabilising measure, but as an attempt to reassert central authority by force. In the wake of this intervention, hostilities broke out between government forces and fighters loyal to Sheikh Hikmat Al Hijri, the most prominent Druze religious authority. Both sides traded blame: Damascus accused Mr Al Hijri's men of attacking its personnel, while Mr Al Hijri accused the state of breaching prior commitments and committing serious abuses. There is no sign that the ceasefire agreement addresses the structural causes of the conflict, nor the far-reaching ripple effects it has triggered Reports soon surfaced about widespread abuses by government-aligned forces, including degrading treatment of detainees and extrajudicial killings. These images triggered widespread public outrage and galvanised local resistance. Mediation attempts broke down, largely due to Mr Al Hijri's refusal to concede or compromise. The situation took a sharp turn when Israel launched air strikes on government forces and key facilities, including the Ministry of Defence, in response to the clashes in Sweida. Fearing broader regional escalation, the US stepped in to contain the crisis. A ceasefire was eventually announced by interim President Ahmad Al Shara, who described it as a necessary measure to prevent a deeper catastrophe. While the details of the agreement remain sparse, early indications suggest it largely reinstates the pre-conflict arrangement: local forces retain de facto control over key areas of Sweida, and Damascus withdraws its military units from the city. Though the ceasefire is a welcome step towards halting the violence, the fact that it was violated almost immediately means it merely freezes a crisis that continues to smoulder beneath the surface. There is no sign that the agreement addresses the structural causes of the conflict, nor the far-reaching ripple effects it has triggered. A return to the previous status quo is not just insufficient – it is dangerous. The events of the past week have profoundly altered Syria's political and social landscape, leaving deep wounds and a toxic environment. Anti-Druze inflammatory rhetoric seized on Israel's strikes to depict the Druze community as collaborators or separatists, reinforcing sectarian narratives and fuelling calls for collective punishment. The result has been a disturbing surge in incitement against the Druze minority, including calls to boycott Druze-owned businesses and expel Druze students from university dormitories. Meanwhile, many Druze – particularly those aligned with Mr Al Hijri – have grown increasingly distrustful of the state and its institutions, further eroding the transitional government's legitimacy. What was once latent sectarian tension has now become overt and volatile, fuelled by a surge in hate speech from all sides. This is precisely what makes the current ceasefire so fragile. A return to the previous arrangement is not a return to calm – it is a reversion to a simmering crisis that could explode at any moment. The ceasefire may have paused the shooting, but only a genuinely inclusive and pluralistic political transition can stop the bleeding and set Syria on a path towards national healing. Unless the country's leadership moves quickly to address the root causes of the violence in Sweida, the current silence will be short-lived. Preventing a return to widespread conflict remains possible, but the window for doing so in a sustainable and inclusive manner is closing fast.
Gulf Today
2 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Calm returns to south Syria after violence
Calm returned to southern Syria's Sweida province on Sunday, a monitor and AFP correspondents reported, after a week of sectarian violence between Druze fighters and rival groups that killed more than 1,000 people. A ceasefire announced on Saturday appeared to be holding after earlier agreements failed to end fighting between longtime rivals the Druze and the Bedouin that spiralled to draw in the government, the Israeli military and armed tribes from other parts of Syria. AFP correspondents on the outskirts of Sweida city reported hearing no clashes on Sunday morning, with government forces deployed in some locations in the province to enforce the truce. The first humanitarian aid convoy entered the city on Sunday, Red Crescent official Omar al-Malki said, adding that it would be followed by others. He said the convoy came 'in coordination with the government bodies and the local authorities in Sweida', which are controlled by the Druze. The Syrian government meanwhile said a Druze group blocked its own convoy from entering the city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that since around midnight (2100 GMT Saturday), 'Sweida has been experiencing a cautious calm', adding government security forces had blocked roads leading to the province in order to prevent tribal fighters from going there. The Britain-based Observatory gave an updated toll on Sunday of more than 1,000 killed since the violence erupted a week ago, including 336 Druze fighters and 298 civilians from the minority group, as well as 342 government security personnel and 21 Bedouin. Witnesses, Druze factions and the Observatory have accused government forces of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses including summary executions when they entered Sweida days ago. Hanadi Obeid, a 39-year-old doctor, told AFP that 'the city hasn't seen calm like this in a week'. The interior ministry said overnight that Sweida city was 'evacuated of all tribal fighters, and clashes within the city's neighbourhoods were halted'. The Observatory had said Druze fighters retook control of the city on Saturday evening. Interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa had on Saturday announced a ceasefire in Sweida and renewed a pledge to protect Syria's ethnic and religious minorities in the face of the latest sectarian violence since Islamists overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December. Agence France-Presse
