Clashes rage in Druze region as Syria struggles to enforce 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.
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.
Saturday'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 U.S. supports a centralised Syria under 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 Assad's elite belonged.
In a statement on Saturday, the Syrian presidency announced an immediate ceasefire and urged an immediate end to hostilities. The interior ministry said internal forces had begun deploying.
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.
Sharaa appeared to blame Druze gunmen for the latest clashes, accusing them of revenge attacks against Bedouins.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said 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.
U.S. envoy Tom Barrack announced on Friday that Syria and Israel had agreed to a ceasefire.
Barrack, who is both U.S. 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 Assad fell, and says it wants areas of southern Syria near its border to remain demilitarised.
On Friday, an Israeli official said Israel had agreed to allow Syrian forces limited access to Sweida for two days.
Mansour Namour, a resident of a village near Sweida city, said mortar shells were still landing near his home on Saturday afternoon, 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 Omar Obeid, director of the hospital.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
a minute ago
- Reuters
Exclusive: US sanctions force vessels with Russian oil to divert from India, sources say
NEW DELHI/MOSCOW, Aug 1 (Reuters) - At least two vessels loaded with Russian oil bound for refiners in India have diverted to other destinations following new U.S. sanctions, trade sources said, and LSEG trade flows showed. The U.S. Treasury Department this week imposed sanctions on more than 115 Iran-linked individuals, entities, and ships, some of which are involved in transporting Russian oil. U.S. President Donald Trump has urged countries to halt purchases of oil from Moscow, threatening 100% tariffs unless Russia agrees to a significant peace deal with Ukraine. Three ships - the Aframaxes Tagor and Guanyin and the Suezmax Tassos - were scheduled to deliver Russian oil to Indian ports this month, trade sources said. All three vessels are under U.S. sanctions. Tagor was bound for Chennai on India's east coast, while Guanyin and Tassos were headed to ports in western India, according to trade sources and Russian ports data. Tighter Western sanctions aimed at cutting Russia's oil revenue, seen as funding its war against Ukraine, have been increasingly hitting Russian oil supplies for India, which buys more than a third of its oil needs from Russia. Tagor is now heading to Dalian in China, while Tassos is diverting to Port Said in Egypt, the data shows. Guanyin remains on course to Sikka, a port used by Reliance Industries ( opens new tab and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd. ( opens new tab. Indian Oil Corp ( opens new tab, which was to receive the Tagor shipment, and BPCL did not respond to Reuters' emailed requests for comment. Zulu Shipping, linked to Panama-flagged Tassos and Tagor, and Guanyin-owner Silver Tetra Marine could not be reached for comments. Both companies are under U.S. sanctions. A Reliance spokesperson said that "neither of these two vessels, Guanyin and Tassos, is coming to us". Reliance has previously purchased oil in Guanyin. Separately, two other vessels, Achilles and Elyte, loaded with Russian oil, are preparing to discharge Russian Urals for Reliance, according to LSEG data. Both these vessels are sanctioned by Britain and the European Union. India has condemned the EU sanctions.
Reuters
a minute ago
- Reuters
Putin, facing Trump deadline, signals no change in Russia's stance on Ukraine
MOSCOW, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow hoped for more peace talks with Ukraine but that the momentum of the war was in its favour, signalling no shift in his stance despite a looming sanctions deadline from Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will impose new sanctions on Moscow and countries that buy its energy exports - of which the biggest are China and India - unless Russia moves by August 8 to end the 3-1/2 year war. He has expressed mounting frustration with Putin, accusing him of "bullshit" and describing Russia's latest attacks on Ukraine as "disgusting". Putin, without referring to the Trump deadline, said three sessions of peace talks with Ukraine had yielded some positive results, and Russia was expecting negotiations to continue. "As for any disappointments on the part of anyone, all disappointments arise from inflated expectations. This is a well-known general rule," he said. "But in order to approach the issue peacefully, it is necessary to conduct detailed conversations. And not in public, but this must be done calmly, in the quiet of the negotiation process." He said Russian troops were attacking Ukraine along the entire front line and that the momentum was in their favour, citing the announcement by his Defence Ministry on Thursday that Moscow's forces had captured the Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar after a 16-month battle. Ukraine denied Chasiv Yar is under full Russian control. Ukraine for months has been urging an immediate ceasefire but Russia says it wants a final and durable settlement, not a pause. Since the peace talks began in Istanbul in May, it has conducted some of its heaviest air strikes of the war, especially on the capital Kyiv. Ukraine and its European allies have frequently said they do not believe Putin is really interested in peace and have accused him of stalling, which the Kremlin denies. "I will repeat once again, we need a long and lasting peace on good foundations that would satisfy both Russia and Ukraine, and ensure the security of both countries," Putin said, adding that this was also a question of European security. Putin was speaking alongside his ally Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, at talks on an island in Lake Ladoga that is the site of a famous Russian monastery. Russian TV earlier showed the two men greeting monks at the Valaam Monastery, where they have met several times before, and holding candles during the chanting of prayers.
Reuters
28 minutes ago
- Reuters
Ukrainians mourn 31 killed in Russian strike on Kyiv
KYIV, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Ukrainian rescuers recovered more than a dozen more bodies from the rubble of a collapsed apartment block in Kyiv overnight, bringing the death toll from Russia's worst air strike of the year on Ukraine's capital to 31. A two-year-old was among the five children found dead after Thursday's sweeping Russian drone and missile attack, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday, announcing the end of a more than 24-hour-long rescue operation. A total of 159 people were wounded in the multi-wave strike, in which Russia launched more than 300 drones and eight missiles early on Thursday, the latest in a campaign of fierce strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities. The worst damage was to an apartment building that partially collapsed in the Sviatoshyn district in western Kyiv. Damage was also reported in at least three other districts of the capital. U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday sharply criticised Russia's "disgusting" behaviour against Ukraine, while saying he was not sure whether sanctions would deter Russia. He has given President Vladimir Putin until August 8 to make a deal or else he will respond with economic pressure. Natalia Matviyenko, 65, sitting near the damaged apartment building, said she did not place much faith in Trump's tough rhetoric. "Trump just says, 'I'm upset with President Putin's behaviour.' And what? No results," she said. The U.S. leader, who returned to power on a pledge to swiftly end the war, has in recent weeks rolled back his earlier conciliatory approach toward Moscow and signalled openness to arming Ukraine. But a diplomatic effort to end the war has stalled, with Moscow not backing down from what Kyiv and its allies describe as maximalist demands. On Friday, mourners laid flowers and lit candles at the wrecked apartment block, where rumbling excavators hoisted heavy pieces of rubble. The makeshift shrine included brightly coloured stuffed animals. Oksana Kinal, 43, who was placing flowers to honour a co-worker who had been killed alongside a son, said she hoped Trump would follow up on his threat but also expressed doubt. "I think America has a lot of points of leverage that can be used against Russia," she said. "But will Putin listen to this? I don't know." Kyiv's air force said on Friday that Ukrainian air defences had destroyed more than 6,000 drones and missiles across the country in July alone. "The world possesses every instrument required to ensure Russia is brought to justice," Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on X on Friday. "What is lacking is not power — but will."
