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- Syrian troops on Thursday pulled out of the Druze heartland of Sweida on the orders of the Islamist-led government, following days of deadly clashes that killed nearly 600 people
MAZRAA, Syria: Syrian government forces prepared to return to a southern region Friday after renewed clashes broke out between Druze armed groups and members of Bedouin clans, leaving tens of thousands of people displaced in a worsening humanitarian crisis.
The government forces had withdrawn from Sweida province following a ceasefire agreement announced Wednesday that halted much the violence that plagued the area earlier in the week, but which ultimately did not stop the fighting.
Officials were negotiating with Druze factions on an agreement to re-enter the area to impose stability and protect state institutions, according to two Syrian officials who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. They said an agreement was reached, but later said the deployment was delayed, without giving an explanation.
Tens of thousands of people remained displaced by the violence and the United Nations has been unable to bring in much-needed humanitarian and medical aid because of ongoing clashes.
A complex conflict
Clashes began Sunday between Druze militias and local Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes. Government forces intervened, nominally to restore order, but ended up taking the Bedouins’ side against the Druze. Israel later in the week launched airstrikes against Syrian forces in defense of the Druze.
The fighting killed hundreds of people over four days, with allegations that government-affiliated fighters executed Druze civilians and looted and burned homes.
Israel launched dozens of airstrikes on convoys of government fighters and even struck the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters in central Damascus. The Druze form a substantial community in Israel, where they are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the Israeli military.
A truce mediated by the US, Turkiye and Arab countries was announced Wednesday. Under the accord, Druze factions and clerics were to maintain the internal security in Sweida as government forces pulled out, Syria’s interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa said Thursday.
Renewed fighting
By late Thursday clashes were flaring again between the Druze and Bedouin groups in parts of Sweida province. State media reported Druze militias carried out revenge attacks against Bedouin communities, leading to a new wave of displacement.
The governor of neighboring Daraa province said in a statement that more than 1,000 families had been displaced to the area from Sweida as a result of “attacks on Bedouin tribes by outlaw groups.”
The volunteer group Syrian Civil Defense said Friday that the head of its center in Sweida city had been kidnapped by gunmen two days earlier while on his way to evacuate a UN team.
The official, Hamza Al-Amarin, was driving a van with the insignia of the organization, known as the White Helmets, when he was stopped by militants, the statement said. A person who answered his phone on Thursday said he was safe, it added, but they have been unable to reach him.
Tens of thousands displaced
The United Nations’ migration agency said Friday that nearly 80,000 people had been displaced altogether since clashes started on Sunday.
It also noted that essential services, including water and electricity, have collapsed in Sweida, telecommunications systems are widely disrupted, and health facilities in Sweida and Daraa are under severe strain.
Meanwhile “there are severe disruptions to supply routes, with insecurity and road closures blocking aid deliveries,” Adam Abdelmoula, UN Resident and Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator in Syria, said in a statement Friday.
The World Health Organization was able to send trauma care supplies to Daraa province, but Sweida remains inaccessible, he said.
“Once conditions allow, we are planning to send a mission to assess needs and provide critical aid, in full coordination with authorities,” Abdelmoula said.
Sweida conflict draws in others
Bedouin groups and supporters arrived Friday from other areas of Syria to join the fight.
On the outskirts of Sweida, groups of them gathered in front of buildings that had been set ablaze. An armed man who gave his name only as Abu Mariam (“father of Mariam“) said he had come from the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor to “support the oppressed.”
“We will not return to our homes until we crush Al-Hijri and his ilk,” he said, referring to a prominent Druze leader opposed to the government in Damascus, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri. “We have nothing to do with civilians and innocent people as long as they stay in their homes.”
Problems that ‘have no reason’
The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
While predominantly Druze, Sweida is also home to Bedouin tribes who are Sunni Muslim and have periodically clashed with the Druze over the years. The latest escalation began with members of a Bedouin tribe in Sweida setting up a checkpoint and attacking and robbing a Druze man, which triggered tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings.
Ahmed Aba Zeid, a Syrian researcher who has studied armed groups in southern Syria, said there is “no specific reason” for the historic tensions between the groups.
“All of Syria is full of social problems that have no reason,” he said.
In this case, however, “The state exploited the latest problem to try to change the situation in Sweida, and this only increased the scope of it,” he said.
Calls for unity
In Israel, members of the Druze community had called for intervention to protect the Druze in Syria. But elsewhere in the region, Druze leaders have rejected Israeli intervention.
The spiritual leader of the Druze community in Lebanon, Sheikh Sami Abi Al-Muna, said Friday at a gathering of Druze officials in Beirut that sectarian clashes in Syria “give an excuse for Israeli intervention and for blowing up the situation in the region.”
“We do not accept to request protection from Israel, which we believe is harmful to our history and identity,” he said.
Al-Muna called for all parties to adhere to the ceasefire agreement reached Wednesday and for a national dialogue to address the issues between different communities in Syria.
Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who had been one of the regional figures mediating the ceasefire reached Wednesday, at the same gathering called for formation of and investigative committee to investigate violations against both Druze and Bedouins in Syria.