BEIRUT — Sectarian fighting persisted in southern Syria on Tuesday, adding to a death toll that after three days of clashes has exceeded 160 people, according to observer groups. The violence triggered yet more conflict, prompting Israel to launch a wave of airstrikes on Syrian government forces who had entered the area to restore order.
The strife in recent days adds to the challenges facing Syria’s fledgling government, which is headed by a one-time Al Qaeda-affiliated rebel faction that ousted former Syrian President Bashar Assad late last year. The government has sought to reassure minority communities in the country that it has abandoned its hardline past, even as fighters working under its aegis have engaged in several bouts of sectarian violence.
This week’s violence, which pitted local Sunni Bedouin tribes against armed factions for the Druze religious community, is likely to add to minorities’ fears. Israel, which has its own Druze community, has portrayed itself as the defender of Druze in Syria.
Despite U.S. efforts to broker diplomatic openings between the two countries, Israel still counts Syria’s new authorities a threat. After Assad’s fall, Israel grabbed swaths of Syrian territory — including a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone — and launched airstrikes to destroy military equipment it said could be used against its territory.
Earlier on Tuesday, Druze religious leaders called on local armed factions to surrender to the authorities when the authorities entered Sweida. And the government’s defense minister, Murhaf Abu Qasra, announced a ceasefire that he said was brokered with the city’s “notables and dignitaries.”
But a few hours later, clashes began anew as Sheikh Hijmat Al-Hijri, a prominent Druze leader who has long resisted cooperating with the new government, issued a statement accusing it of continuing “indiscriminate shelling of unarmed civilians.” He called on local fighters to defy state security forces.
Syria’s Interior Ministry said on Monday that more than 30 people were killed and 100 others wounded. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said on Tuesday that 166 people have been killed since fighting erupted on Sunday.
Videos published on social media and local news outlets depicted gunmen dashing through abandoned streets in Sweida’s downtown districts as shooting can be heard in the background; several storefronts in the city’s main market appear to have been torched or vandalized. Another video depicts government-affiliated gunmen cheering and shooting in the air as they claim to have seized control of Sweida.
Accusations of sectarian violations against civilians have dogged government forces operating in minority-dominated areas. In March, pro-government factions committed what rights groups called a pogrom in Syria’s coastal region, torturing, kidnapping and killing some 1,500 people from the Alawite community.
In his statement, Qasra, the defense minister, warned security personnel that any transgression and vandalism would face “harsh legal measures.” But the Observatory, which relies on a network of activists in the country, accused government-affiliated fighters of engaging in field executions that killed 21 people in Sweida, including three women. Later, a video said to be taken at the site of those executions shows men in civilian clothing lying on the ground, with streaks of blood on the ground around their corpses.
Other videos emerged showing government-affiliated gunmen beating up captured Druze fighters and mutilating the corpses of those killed, as well as humiliating Druze men they encountered around Sweida.
The clashes in Sweida initially broke out Sunday after a wave of kidnapings and robberies between Bedouin and Druze in southern Syria. But they reflect a longer grievance: Druze factions have so far refused to surrender their areas to the government, which they say does not represent Syria’s multi-ethnic and religious makeup.
As the clashes stretched into the late afternoon, Israeli warplanes conducted several airstrikes, including on a police headquarters inside the city and a tank, activists said.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement Tuesday that “Israel is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria due to the deep brotherly alliance with our Druze citizens in Israel, and their familial and historical connection to the Druze in Syria.”
“We are acting to prevent the Syrian regime from harming the Druze and to ensure the demilitarization of the area adjacent to our border with Syria,” he added.
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