15-07-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Syria announces ceasefire after latest outbreak of deadly sectarian violence
BUSRA AL-HARIR: Syria 's defense minister announced a ceasefire shortly after government forces entered a key city in Sweida province on Tuesday, a day after sectarian clashes killed dozens, while neighboring Israel again launched strikes in the area.
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.
