Syrian forces who fought Druze militias leave Sweida province as a new ceasefire is on

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB and GHAITH ALSAYED
Associated Press

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian government forces largely pulled out of the southern province of Sweida on Thursday after days of clashes with militias linked to the Druze minority that threatened to unravel the country’s post-war transition and brought in more Israeli airstrikes in defense of the Druze.

Though the truce — mediated by the United States, Turkey and Arab countries — mostly halted fighting between Druze armed groups and government forces, Syrian state media said Druze militiamen had launched revenge attacks on Sunni Bedouin communities, leading to a wave of their displacement.

Bedouin clans had fought alongside government forces against the Druze groups when the latest fighting erupted.

A new ceasefire deal

Under the new truce agreement, reached Wednesday after a previous agreement unraveled, Druze factions and clerics have been appointed to maintain internal security in Sweida, Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa said in an address broadcast early Thursday.

The fighting had brought on further military intervention by neighboring Israel, which on Wednesday struck the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters, in central Damascus. Israel said it was acting to protect the Druze religious minority.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Thursday to keep southern Syria demilitarized and to protect the Druze community, which has a sizeable population in Israel. “This will also be the continuation of our policy,” he said.

Convoys of government forces started withdrawing overnight, Syrian state media reported, saying it was in line with the ceasefire deal and that the military operation against the Druze factions had ended.

The truce was announced by Syria’s Interior Ministry and in a video message by a Druze religious leader. The previous agreement on Tuesday quickly broke down after being dismissed by prominent Druze cleric Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri.

The Syrian government has not released any casualty counts from the fighting.

The Britain-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 516 fighters and civilians were killed on both sides over four days of deadly clashes. The monitor also said at least 86 civilians killed in “field executions” — mostly Druze Syrians killed by government forces and their allies — and that at least three Bedouin civilians were killed in revenge attacks Thursday by Druze militiamen.

Looting homes and killing civilians

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and intelligence chief İbrahim Kalin held a series of diplomatic and security contacts to deescalate the clashes, a Turkish official said Thursday. They worked with the U.S. mediators and regional officials and leaders, including Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, said the official who requested anonymity to discuss the negotiations.

The escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in Sweida. Government forces that intervened to restore order clashed with the Druze militias, but also in some cases attacked civilians.

Video circulated on social media showing government forces and allies humiliating Druze clerics and residents, looting homes and killing civilians hiding inside their houses. Syrian Druze from Sweida told The Associated Press that several family members who were unarmed had been attacked or killed.

“We are committed to holding accountable those who wronged our Druze brethren,” al-Sharaa said, describing the Druze as an ”integral part” of Syria, protected under the law.

‘Militant sectarianism’

The Druze community had been divided over how to approach al-Sharaa’s de facto Islamist rule oafter largely celebrating when his forces ousted former President Bashar Assad and the Assad family’s decadeslong autocratic rule. They feared persecution after attacks from the militant Islamic State group and al-Qaida affiliates during Syria’s 14-year civil war.

Issam al-Reis, a senior military adviser with Etana, a Syrian research group, said the lack of “effective state-led negotiations” could sow further divisions between the Druze community with the Sunni Beduins, who were largely able to coexist in the past.

“This is leading to militant sectarianism, which is dangerous,” he said, adding it’s a sign that the government needs to speed up its integration of other sects into the Syrian army to make it a more unifying force and help resolve sectarian tensions.

“There have been agreements and talks about this with different communities, but until now none of this has been implemented,” he said.

The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.

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Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser from Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.