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The National
7 days ago
- Politics
- The National
Syria announces 'halt' to Sweida offensive after Israel bombs Damascus
Syria has announced an 'immediate and complete halt' to its offensive against the Druze minority, after Israel attacked key symbols of power in Damascus. The Syrian government said it had agreed to the ceasefire with some but not all representatives of the Druze community, after Israeli strikes were launched to protect the religious sect. A previous truce failed to hold during days of brutal urban warfare in the Druze heartland of Sweida. Israel widened its aerial campaign in Syria with a series of strikes on the main military compounds in Damascus on Wednesday. A Syrian military official told The National that the Army General Command and Defence Ministry, both adjacent to the city's Ummayad Square, "took several strikes and were badly damaged". Israel, which says it is acting to defend Syria's Druze minority following clashes with Bedouin tribes that prompted Syrian government intervention, also said it attacked "a military target in the area of the Syrian regime's presidential palace". Three people was reported killed and 34 injured, as Israel said its army would be "reinforced with additional troops" near Syria's border. Gulf countries called for calm after days of unrest, some of the worst since Syria's President Ahmad Al Shara came to power in a rebel offensive last year. The UAE condemned the "dangerous escalation" and Israeli attacks, rejecting any breach of Syria's sovereignty or threats to its security and stability. An aide to Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat Al Hijri, who has led the resistance to government forces in Sweida, said he was not part of the ceasefire deal but will speak after the city is 'liberated'. Israel strikes Damascus - in pictures The ceasefire deal was reached with the House of the Druze Unifiers, not specifically with the Druze triumvirate headed by Sheikh Al Hijri. But it stipulates that 'all parties will cease military escalation" and provides for an "immediate and complete halt" to government military operations. The agreement also signalled that Syrian security forces deployed in Sweida province will from now be drawn only from its residents, a main Druze demand. 'Painful blows' Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said "painful blows have begun", as he posted footage of a Syrian TV anchor in panic at an explosion behind her while reading a report on air. An Israeli statement said its army is monitoring the "regime's actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria" and is striking in the area, and "remains prepared for various scenarios". Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said "murder and pogroms" were taking place against minorities in Syria. Sources in Jordan said Israel struck the Syrian army in Keswa on the outskirts of Damascus and in the southern governorate of Deraa, killing three security commanders. The Israeli attacks could undermine a US push to end hostilities between Syria and Israel, with the new authorities in Damascus having reportedly engaged in talks with Israel, although the contents of the talks have not been disclosed. Residents of Sweida contacted by The National said they were afraid for their lives, not just from shelling but also from government snipers and the storming of houses by regular troops and militias allied with Damascus. "My neighbour was shot dead by a sniper, right there in the street. He had just stepped outside," said one resident. The man had been trying to escape Sweida to a village on the outskirts before he was shot, they added. Widening offensive The Israeli attacks came as Syrian troops and their militia allies widened an offensive against the mostly Druze governorate of Sweida, deploying snipers and firing rockets on residential areas, witnesses said. However, they were facing resistance as Israel mounted its raids in support of the sect. Tom Barrack, the US envoy to Syria, said Washington "condemns violence against civilians in Sweida", without assigning blame. "All parties must step back and engage in meaningful dialogue," he said. The Syrian government offensive, in its fourth day, aims to spread government control over the province, where many Druze have resisted the post- Bashar Al Assad order, which is led by former members of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, a splinter group from Al Qaeda. Sheikh Hikmat Al Hijri, the Druze spiritual leader, has criticised the HTS government as extremist and anti-democratic. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implored Druze in Israeli-controlled areas near south Syria not to cross into Syria to support their co-religionists. 'You are risking your lives; you can be murdered, you can be kidnapped, and you are harming the efforts of the Israeli Defence Forces," Mr Netanyahu said. Syrian militias forcibly shave men's moustaches in Druze heartland A Druze politician close to Mr Al Hijri told The National that the 82nd Division of the Syrian army entered Sweida city overnight in an attempt to secure the area, the epicentre of the government attacks. 'About half of Sweida has fallen,' he said, adding that snipers from the 82nd Division had been deployed on Qanawat Road, a commercial thoroughfare. Pitched battles were continuing in many neighbourhoods, he said, including in the centre of city. A witness in Sweida said government forces fired Grad rockets on the city on Wednesday, in addition to pounding it with artillery rounds since Sunday. 'We have not left our houses. We do not feel secure because the shelling is random,' said the witness, who is a member of Sweida's Christian clergy. The city of 140,000 is overwhelmingly Druze but has a minority of Christian and Sunni inhabitants. Sources in Jordan say that government forces and allied militias have killed more than 150 Druze, including civilians, since Sunday. Among them are at least a dozen men who were executed after the loyalist forces stormed buildings in Sweida. The Syrian authorities said 26 of its troops were killed. Sweida is home to most of Syria's registered 800,000 Druze. But many have emigrated, particularly during the country's 13-year civil war, with an estimated 270,000 Druze remaining in the province. Rima Fleihan, a Druze civil figure who was a leading peaceful opponent of the Assad regime, said that the government's siege is endangering Sweida's hospitals, and that at least one doctor was killed by government snipers. 'The military forces are indiscriminately shelling civilian neighbourhoods,' Ms Fleihan said, adding that 'numerous individuals' affiliated with the government have 'carried out field executions of civilians, and have detained others in clear violation of international humanitarian law'. The Druze follow an offshoot of Islam and are also present in Jordan, Lebanon and Israel. Israel intervened militarily in April to halt attacks by government militias on the sect in which dozens of Druze were killed in Damascus and Sweida.
Arab News
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Syrian forces to move on Druze city after deadly sectarian clashes
DAMASCUS: Syrian government forces were to enter the majority Druze city of Sweida, the interior ministry said Tuesday, aiming to end clashes with Bedouin tribes that have killed nearly 100 southern city had been under the control of armed factions from the Druze minority, whose religious leaders said they had approved the deployment of Damascus's troops and called on fighters to hand over their weapons.A curfew was to be imposed on the southern city in a bid to halt the violence, which erupted at the weekend and has since spread across Sweida forces said they intervened to separate the warring sides but ended up taking control of several Druze areas around Sweida, an AFP correspondent reported. Military columns were seen advancing toward the city on Tuesday morning, with heavy artillery deployed troops had begun moving toward the city on Monday, taking control of at least one Druze village, with one Druze faction saying talks were underway with the Damascus Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported 99 people killed since the fighting erupted on Sunday – 60 Druze, including four civilians, 18 Bedouin fighters, 14 security personnel and seven unidentified people in military defense ministry reported 18 deaths among the ranks of the armed Druze religious authorities had called on Monday evening for a ceasefire and said they didn't oppose the central government, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, one of the three Druze spiritual leaders in Sweida, opposed the arrival of the security forces and called for 'international protection.'Israel, which has attempted to portray itself as a protector of the Druze in Syria and sees them as potential allies, bombed several Syrian tanks on strikes were 'a clear warning to the Syrian regime – we will not allow harm to be done to the Druze in Syria,' said Defense Minister Israel Katz, whose country has its own Druze fighting underscores the challenges facing interim leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa, whose Islamist forces ousted president Bashar Assad in December after nearly 14 years of civil pre-war Druze population was estimated at around 700,000, many of them concentrated in Sweida Druze, followers of an esoteric religion that split from Shiite Islam, are mainly found in Syria, Lebanon and deadly clashes with government forces in April and May, local and religious leaders reached an agreement with Damascus under which Druze fighters had been providing security in the province.'We lived in a state of extreme terror – the shells were falling randomly,' said Abu Taym, a 51-year-old a 46-year-old woman, said: 'We fear a repeat of the coastal scenario,' referring to massacres in March of more than 1,700 mostly Alawite civilians in northwest Syria, where groups affiliated with the government were blamed for most of the killings.'We are not against the state, but we are against surrendering our weapons without a state that treats everyone the same,' she a post on X, Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra urged his troops to 'protect your fellow citizens' from 'outlaw gangs,' and to 'restore stability to Sweida.'The violence began on Sunday when Bedouin gunmen abducted a Druze vegetable vendor on the highway to Damascus, prompting retaliatory Observatory said members of Bedouin tribes, who are Sunni Muslims, had sided with security forces during earlier confrontations with the and Druze factions have a longstanding feud in Sweida, and violence occasionally erupts between the two sides.
