Clashes rage in Druze region as Syria struggles to enforce ceasefire

Sectarian clashes escalated in Syria’s predominantly Druze region of Sweida on Saturday, with machinegun fire and mortar shelling ringing out after days of bloodshed as the Islamist-led government struggled to implement a ceasefire.

Reuters reporters heard gunfire from inside the city of Sweida and saw shells land in nearby villages. There were no immediate, confirmed reports of casualties.

The government had said security forces were deploying in the southern region to try to keep peace, and urged all parties to stop fighting after nearly a week of factional bloodshed in which hundreds have been killed.

Late on Saturday, the interior ministry said clashes in Sweida city had been halted and the area cleared of Bedouin tribal fighters following the deployment.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said clashes since last week around Sweida had killed at least 940 people. Reuters could not independently verify the toll.

Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said “Arab and American” mediation had helped restore calm, before the clashes escalated. He criticised Israel for airstrikes during the week.

The fighting is the latest challenge to the control of Sharaa’s Islamist-dominated government, which took over after rebels toppled autocratic president Bashar al-Assad in December.

It started last week as clashes between the Druze – a religious minority native to southern Syria, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and parts of Lebanon and Jordan – and Syrian Bedouin tribes.

Government forces then arrived to try to quell tensions, clashing with Druze gunmen and attacking the Druze community.

Saturday’s violence once again pitted Druze against Bedouin, witnesses said.

The fighting has drawn in neighbouring Israel, which carried out airstrikes in southern Syria and on the defence ministry in Damascus this week while government forces were fighting with the Druze. Israel says it is protecting the Druze, who also form a significant minority in Israel.

But Israel and Washington differ over Syria. The U.S. supports a centralised Syria under Sharaa’s government, which has pledged to rule for all citizens, while Israel says the government is dominated by jihadists and a danger to minorities.

In March, Syria’s military was involved in mass killings of members of the Alawite minority, to which much of Assad’s elite belonged.