Syria announces ceasefire after latest outbreak of deadly sectarian violence
Murhaf Abu Qasra said in a statement that after an agreement with the city's "notables and dignitaries, we will respond only to the sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw groups.'
The latest sectarian violence to emerge under Syria's new leaders began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between members of local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province, a center of the Druze community. Syrian government security forces sent to restore order on Monday clashed with Druze armed groups.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz in a joint statement said Israel had struck to 'prevent the Syrian regime from harming' the Druze religious minority 'and to ensure disarmament in the area adjacent to our borders with Syria.' In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces.
Syria's state-run news agency SANA did not give details about the strikes. Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel struck a tank belonging to the Syrian military as forces began to move deeper into Sweida city.
Manhal Yasser Al-Gor, a member of the Interior Ministry forces, was being treated for shrapnel wounds at a local hospital after an Israeli strike hit his convoy.
'We were entering Sweida to secure the civilians and prevent looting. I was on an armored personnel carrier when the Israeli drone hit us," he said, adding that there were 'many casualties.'
Syria's Interior Ministry said Monday that more than 30 people had been killed, but has not updated the figures.
The observatory said Tuesday that 135 people had been killed in 48 hours, including two women and two children. Among them were 19 people killed in 'field executions' by government forces, including 12 men in a rest house in the city of Sweida, it said. It did not say how many of the dead were civilians.
There was no immediate Syrian government comment on the allegation of field executions.
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Sharaa said that Syrian troops had withdrawn from Sweida to de-escalate tensions but that the 'horrifying campaign of violence" that had followed 'constituted a clear violation of those understandings." He promised to 'hold accountable all those who committed crimes and violated the law—regardless of their affiliation." A top Hijri militia leader denied the accusations. 'There were reactions, but to kill and slaughter this did not happen," said Firoz Naeem in an interview. The government, he said, is colluding with the Bedouin to target Hijri to divide the Druze. 'We are open to dialogue with all communities, but someone who calls you a disbeliever, an infidel, how are we going to feel safe?" Naeem added. 'We have a legitimate right to defend ourselves." Over the weekend, after another cease-fire mediated by the U.S., Syrian forces returned to Sweida to try to restore order. Israel stopped its air campaign on the condition that the Druze would be protected. The truce remains fragile amid an emerging humanitarian crisis, including nearly 100,000 people displaced, says the U.N. Sectarian hate speech targeting both Druze and Bedouin remains rampant online. Syria's Interior Ministry this week said the government had begun evacuating hundreds of Bedouin families from Sweida in buses toward Daraa, a province where Sunni Muslims dominate. Write to Sudarsan Raghavan at
