MAZRAA, Syria (AP) — Syria’s armed Bedouin clans introduced Sunday they’d withdrawn from the Druze-majority metropolis of Sweida following weeklong clashes and a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, as humanitarian assist convoys began to enter the battered southern metropolis.
The clashes between militias of the Druze spiritual minority and the Sunni Muslim clans killed lots of and threatened to unravel Syria’s already fragile postwar transition. Israel additionally launched dozens of airstrikes within the Druze-majority Sweida province, concentrating on authorities forces who had successfully sided with the Bedouins.
The clashes additionally led to a collection of focused sectarian assaults in opposition to the Druze group, adopted by revenge assaults in opposition to the Bedouins.
A collection of tit-for-tat kidnappings sparked the clashes in varied cities and villages within the province, which later unfold to Sweida metropolis, the provincial capital. Authorities forces have been redeployed to halt renewed preventing that erupted Thursday, earlier than withdrawing once more.
Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who has been perceived as extra sympathetic to the Bedouins, had tried to enchantment to the Druze group whereas remaining crucial of the militias. He later urged the Bedouins to depart the town, saying that they “cannot replace the role of the state in handling the country’s affairs and restoring security.”
“We thank the Bedouins for their heroic stances but demand they fully commit to the ceasefire and comply with the state’s orders,” he stated in an tackle broadcast Saturday.
Dozens of armed Bedouin fighters alongside different clans from across the nation who got here to assist them remained on the outskirts of the town and have been cordoned off by authorities safety forces and navy police. They blame the clashes on the Druze factions loyal to non secular chief Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri and accuse them of harming Bedouin households.
“We will not leave until he turns himself in alongside those with him who tried to stir sedition. And only then will we go home.” Khaled al-Mohammad, who got here to the southern province alongside different tribesman from the jap Deir al-Zour province, instructed The Related Press.
Help convoys enter Sweida however tensions persist
Omar Haj Kadour/AFP through Getty Pictures
The Bedouins’ withdrawal introduced a cautious calm to the realm, with humanitarian convoys on their method. The Syrian Crimson Crescent stated Sunday it despatched 32 vehicles loaded with meals, medication, water, gas and different assist, after the preventing left the province with energy cuts and shortages.
Syria’s state information company SANA reported that the convoy entered Sweida on Sunday, however accused al-Hijri and his armed Druze supporters of turning again a authorities delegation that accompanied one other convoy.
The Overseas Ministry in an announcement stated the convoy accompanying the delegation had two ambulances loaded with assist offered by native and worldwide organizations.
Al-Hijri didn’t straight reply to the accusations however stated in an announcement that he welcomes any help for Sweida and slammed what he claims have been distorted campaigns in opposition to him.
“We reaffirm that we have no dispute with anyone on any religious or ethnic basis,” the assertion learn. “Shame and disgrace be upon all those who seek to sow discord and hatred in the minds of young people.”
The U.N. Worldwide Group for Migration stated 128,571 folks have been displaced through the clashes, together with 43,000 on Saturday alone.
US envoy appeals for an finish to preventing
Omar Sanadiki through Related Press
Washington’s particular envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, stated the clashes and atrocities “overshadowed” an preliminary cautious optimism in regards to the nation’s post-war transition and the worldwide group’s lifting of sanctions.
“All factions must immediately lay down their arms, cease hostilities and abandon cycles of tribal vengeance,” Barrack stated on X. “Syria stands at a critical juncture — peace and dialogue must prevail — and prevail now.”
Amongst these killed within the weeklong preventing have been dozens of Druze civilians slain in a collection of focused assaults within the metropolis by the hands of Bedouin fighters and authorities forces. Movies surfaced on-line of fighters destroying portraits of Druze spiritual officers and notables in properties, and shaving the mustaches of aged Druze, seen as an insult to tradition and custom. Druze militias in return attacked Bedouin-majority areas within the outskirts of the province, forcing households to flee to neighboring Daraa province.
Greater than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide stay in Syria. Many of the different Druze stay in Lebanon and Israel, together with within the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria within the 1967 Mideast Battle and annexed in 1981.
Syria’s Druze largely celebrated the downfall of the Assad household that ended a long time of tyrannical rule. Whereas they’d issues about Al-Sharaa’s de facto Islamist rule, a big quantity needed to method issues diplomatically. Al-Hijri and his supporters, although, have taken a extra confrontational method with Al-Sharaa, opposite to most different influential Druze figures. Critics additionally word al-Hijri’s earlier allegiance to Assad.
Nevertheless, the latest clashes and sectarian assaults on the minority group have made a rising variety of Druze within the space extra skeptical about Damascus’ new management and extra uncertain of peaceable coexistence.
