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AL-MAZRA’AH: Syrian government forces were advancing toward the southern city of Sweida on Monday after taking control of a Druze village nearby, an AFP correspondent said, on the second day of sectarian clashes there.
Security forces were deployed in Sweida province following clashes between Druze fighters and Bedouin tribes that killed at least 89 people since Sunday.
The AFP correspondent saw forces under the Syrian defense ministry deployed in Al-Mazraa village, where Bedouin fighters were also located. The forces continued to advance in the direction of Sweida city.
A commander, Ezzeddine Al-Shamayer, told AFP the forces “are heading toward Sweida.”
The Israeli army said on Monday that it struck several tanks between the villages of Al-Mazraa and Sami that were heading to Sweida.
It added that it would not allow “the establishment of a military threat in southern Syria and will operate against it.”
Druze spiritual leaders called for calm and urged Damascus to intervene.
But Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, one of the three Druze spiritual leaders in Sweida, expressed his “rejection of the entry” of general security forces into the province, demanding “international protection.”
The fighting underscores the challenges facing interim Syrian leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa, whose Islamist forces ousted president Bashar Assad in December.