Syria broadcasts ceasefire after newest outbreak of lethal sectarian violence

Syria’s defence minister introduced a ceasefire shortly after authorities forces entered a key metropolis in southern Sweida province on Tuesday, a day after sectarian clashes killed dozens there.

Neighbouring Israel once more launched strikes on Syrian navy forces, saying it was defending the Druze minority.

The most recent escalation underneath Syria’s new leaders started with tit-for-tat kidnappings and assaults between native Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions within the southern province, a centre of the Druze group.

Syrian authorities forces, despatched to revive order on Monday, additionally clashed with Druze armed teams.

A ceasefire announcement

On Tuesday, Syrian Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra stated an settlement was struck with the town’s “notables and dignitaries” and that authorities forces would “reply solely to the sources of fireplace and cope with any focusing on by outlaw teams.” Nevertheless, scattered clashes continued after his announcement — as did allegations that safety forces had dedicated violations towards civilians.

Syria’s Inside Ministry stated on Monday that greater than 30 folks had been killed, however has not up to date the figures since. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based warfare monitor, stated on Tuesday that 166 folks had been killed since Sunday, together with 5 ladies and two kids.

Amongst them have been 21 folks killed in “subject executions” by authorities forces, together with 12 males in a relaxation home within the metropolis of Sweida, it stated. It didn’t say how most of the useless have been civilians and in addition cited reviews of members of the safety forces looting and setting houses on hearth.

Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa stated in an announcement that he had tasked authorities with “taking rapid authorized motion towards anybody confirmed to have dedicated a transgression or abuse, no matter their rank or place.” Related Press journalists in Sweida province noticed forces at a authorities checkpoint looking out automobiles and confiscating suspected stolen items from each civilians and troopers.

Israel’s involvement attracts pushback

Israeli airstrikes focused authorities forces’ convoys heading into the provincial capital of Sweida and in different areas of southern Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Protection Minister Israel Katz stated the strikes sought to “forestall the Syrian regime from harming” the Druze spiritual minority “and to make sure disarmament within the space adjoining to our borders with Syria.” In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and infrequently serve within the armed forces.

In the meantime, Israeli Cupboard member and Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli known as on X for al-Sharaa to be “eradicated directly.”

A soldier’s story

Manhal Yasser Al-Gor, of the Inside Ministry forces, was being handled for shrapnel wounds at an area hospital after an Israeli strike hit his convoy.

We have been coming into Sweida to safe the civilians and forestall looting. I used to be on an armored personnel service when the Israeli drone hit us,” he stated, including that there have been “many casualties.”

The Syrian International Ministry stated Israeli strikes had killed “a number of harmless civilians” in addition to troopers, and known as them “a reprehensible instance of ongoing aggression and exterior interference” in Syria’s inner issues.

It stated the Syrian state is dedicated to defending the Druze, “who type an integral a part of the nationwide identification and united Syrian social material.”

Suspicion over Syria’s new authorities

Israel has taken an aggressive stance towards Syria’s new leaders since al-Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist insurgents ousted former President Bashar Assad in December, saying it would not need militants close to its borders. Israeli forces have seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory alongside the border with the Golan Heights and launched tons of of airstrikes on navy websites in Syria.

Earlier on Tuesday, spiritual leaders of the Druze group in Syria known as for armed factions which were clashing with authorities forces to give up their weapons and cooperate with authorities. One of many important Druze religious leaders later launched a video assertion retracting the decision.

Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, who has been against the federal government in Damascus, stated within the video that the preliminary Druze leaders’ assertion had been issued after an settlement with the authorities in Damascus however that “they broke the promise and continued the indiscriminate shelling of unarmed civilians.” “We’re being subjected to a complete warfare of annihilation,” he claimed, with out providing proof.

Some movies on social media confirmed armed fighters with Druze captives, beating them and, in some circumstances, forcibly shaving males’s moustaches.

Sectarian and revenge assaults

The Druze spiritual sect started as a Tenth-century offshoot of Ismailism, a department of Shiite Islam. Greater than half the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide dwell in Syria. Many of the different Druze dwell in Lebanon and Israel, together with within the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria within the 1967 Mideast Battle and annexed in 1981.

Since Assad’s fall, clashes have damaged out a number of occasions between forces loyal to the brand new Syrian authorities and Druze fighters.

The most recent combating has raised fears of extra sectarian violence. In March, an ambush on authorities forces by Assad loyalists in one other a part of Syria triggered days of sectarian and revenge assaults. Lots of of civilians have been killed, most of them members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect. A fee was fashioned to analyze the assaults however no findings have been made public.

The movies and reviews of troopers’ violations spurred outrage and protests by Druze communities in neighbouring Lebanon, northern Israel and within the Israel-annexed Golan Heights, the place the Israeli navy stated dozens of protesters had crossed the border into Syrian territory.

The violence drew worldwide concern. The US envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, known as the violence “worrisome on all sides” in a submit on.

“We try to come back to a peaceable, inclusive end result for Druze, Bedouin tribes, the Syrian authorities and Israeli forces,” he stated.

Revealed – July 16, 2025 01:21 am IST