Israeli airstrike hits Sweida city in Syria as tribal fighters clash with Bedouins

[Edge Guerrero]

Conflict restarts in southern province as Druze groups reportedly target Bedouin villages in ‘revenge’ attacks

William Christou in Beirut

The Israeli military has carried out an airstrike on the outskirts of Sweida city as clashes between tribal fighters and Bedouin fighters intensified on Thursday night.

The clashes started a wave of tit-for-tat retaliatory violence earlier on in the day after Syrian government forces withdrew from Sweida.

The violence began after Syrian government forces started to withdraw from the Druze-majority province of Sweida, ending four days of conflict between the army and local Druze fighters.

In a speech on Thursday, the Syrian president said Druze groups would be left to govern security affairs in the southern province, in what he described as a choice to avoid war.

Ahmed al-Sharaa said: “We sought to avoid dragging the country into a new, broader war that could derail it from its path to recovery from the devastating war … We chose the interests of Syrians over chaos and destruction.”

Clashes resumed on Thursday afternoon in Sweida as Syrian state media reported that Druze groups launched revenge attacks on Bedouin villages, killing many civilians and prompting a wave of displacement, after Bedouin tribes had fought alongside government forces against Druze fighters earlier in the week.

The Syrian media outlet Enab Baladi quoted Bedouin residents as saying “armed groups of Druze” stormed their villages, burning houses as they came. One of the three spiritual leaders of the Syrian Druze, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, put out a statement vowing to “respect the peaceful Bedouin clans”.

Calls for revenge had begun to circle on social media on Thursday.

Syrian security forces initially intervened in Sweida on Monday after a local dispute between Arab Bedouin tribes and Druze fighters escalated into fighting. Druze militias tried to prevent the entry of the Syrian army and attacked them, which led to days of clashes with government forces.

The Israeli military also intervened, striking the Syrian defence ministry headquarters in Damascus and dozens of Syrian military targets in the south. An Israeli military spokesperson said the strikes were a message to Syria’s president regarding the events in Sweida.

At least 516 civilians and fighters were killed in the clashes, according to the UK-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The monitor said at least 86 civilians were killed by government forces and their allies, and that three Bedouin civilians were killed by Druze fighters on Thursday.

Sharaa condemned Israel for “wide-scale targeting of civilian and government facilities”. He said the strikes were pushing “matters to a large-scale escalation, except for the effective intervention of American, Arab and Turkish mediation, which saved the region from an unknown fate”.

The clashes were the most serious challenge to Damascus’s rule since a series of massacres in the coastal north-west in March, in which 1,500 mostly Alawite civilians were killed after a foiled attack by remnants of the ousted Assad regime on security forces.

The Druze, a religious minority in Syria and the wider Middle East, make up the majority of the population of Sweida province. They have been negotiating with the Islamist-led authorities in Damascus since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in an attempt to achieve autonomy but have yet to reach an agreement that defines their relationship with the new Syrian state.

Some Druze said they felt further estranged from the new authority after the clashes. “I would rather die than be ruled by them. At least I would die with dignity,” said a 25-year-old civil engineer in Sweida, whose two cousins were killed on Tuesday.

Other Druze dignitaries, particularly Youssef Jarboua, another of Syria’s three Druze spiritual leaders, have advocated for a more conciliatory approach with Damascus.

Sharaa acknowledged abuses against civilians had occurred and said “lawless groups” had committed crimes against them.

“We are determined to hold accountable anyone who wronged or harmed our Druze brethren. They are under the protection and responsibility of the state and the law and justice guarantee the rights of all without exception,” he added.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, welcomed the initial ceasefire. He said on X that an agreement had been reached to restore calm in the area, urging “all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made”, without elaborating on the nature of the agreement.

The US had been mediating in an attempt to stop Israeli strikes on Syria, which came as a surprise as Israeli-Syria ties had been warming since May.

Rubio blamed “historic longtime rivalries” for the clashes in Sweida. “It led to an unfortunate situation and a misunderstanding, it looks like, between the Israeli side and the Syrian side,” Rubio told reporters in the White House.

Diplomats said the UN security council would meet on Thursday to address the Syrian conflict.

It was unclear how the autonomy of Sweida would be affected by the days of clashes. Though Sharaa’s speech said the military would be withdrawing, it made no mention of members of general security, Syria’s equivalent to gendarmes.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, welcomed the initial ceasefire. He said on X that an agreement had been reached to restore calm in the area, urging “all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made”, without elaborating on the nature of the agreement.

The US had been mediating in an attempt to stop Israeli strikes on Syria, which came as a surprise as Israeli-Syria ties had been warming since May.

Rubio blamed “historic longtime rivalries” for the clashes in Sweida. “It led to an unfortunate situation and a misunderstanding, it looks like, between the Israeli side and the Syrian side,” Rubio told reporters in the White House.

Diplomats said the UN security council would meet on Thursday to address the Syrian conflict.

It was unclear how the autonomy of Sweida would be affected by the days of clashes. Though Sharaa’s speech said the military would be withdrawing, it made no mention of members of general security, Syria’s equivalent to gendarmes.

[url]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/17/syrian-president-condemns-israels-attacks-on-damascus-and-vows-to-protect-druze-community

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