Fighting in Syria’s Sweida “halted” yesterday, the government said, after the southern city was recaptured by Druze fighters and state forces redeployed to the region where more than 900 people have been killed in sectarian violence.
Druze fighters had pushed out rival armed factions from the city on Saturday, a monitor said, after the government ordered a ceasefire following a US-brokered deal to avert further Israeli military intervention.
Sweida was “evacuated of all tribal fighters, and clashes within the city’s neighborhoods were halte,” Syrian Ministry of Interior spokesman Noureddine al-Baba wrote on Telegram.
Photo: Reuters
Israel had bombed government forces in Sweida and Damascus earlier this week to force their withdrawal after they were accused of summary executions and other abuses against Druze civilians during their brief deployment in the southern province.
More than 900 people have been killed in Sweida since Sunday last week as sectarian clashes between the Druze and Bedouin drew in the Islamist-led government, Israel and armed tribes from other parts of Syria.
Earlier on Saturday, an AFP correspondent saw dozens of torched homes and vehicles and armed men setting fire to shops after looting them.
By the evening, Bassem Fakhr, spokesman for the Men of Dignity, one of the two largest Druze armed groups, said there was “no Bedouin presence in the city.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor also said “tribal fighters withdrew from Sweida city on Saturday evening” after Druze fighters launched a large-scale attack.
Fighting nonetheless persisted in other parts of Sweida province, even as the Druze regained control of their city following days of fierce battle with armed Bedouin supported by tribal gunmen from other parts of Syria.
The deal between the Islamist-government and Israel had been announced by Washington early on Saturday.
US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “have agreed to a ceasefire” negotiated by the US.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio later on social media called on the Syrian government’s security forces to prevent jihadists from entering and “carrying out massacres.”
He also urged the Syrian government to “hold accountable and bring to justice anyone guilty of atrocities including those in their own ranks.”
Barrack, who is the US ambassador to Ankara, said the deal had the backing of Turkey and Jordan.
Barrack later held a meeting in Amman with the Syrian and Jordanian top diplomats, during which they “agreed on practical steps to support Syria in implementing the agreement”, the US envoy said.
Sharaa followed up on the US announcement with a televised speech in which he announced an immediate ceasefire in Sweida and renewed his pledge to protect Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities.
“The Syrian state is committed to protecting all minorities and communities in the country... We condemn all crimes committed” in Sweida, he said.
The president paid tribute to the “important role played by the United States, which again showed its support for Syria in these difficult circumstances and its concern for the country’s stability.”
Israel expressed deep skepticism about Sharaa’s pledge to protect minorities, pointing to deadly violence against Alawites as well as Druze since he led the overthrow of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December.
In Sharaa’s Syria “it is very dangerous to be a member of a minority — Kurd, Druze, Alawite or Christian,” Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Saar wrote on social media.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said at least 940 people had been killed in the violence since Sunday last week.
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