DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern Druze city of Sweida early on Wednesday, collapsing a ceasefire announced just hours earlier that aimed to put an end to days of deadly sectarian bloodshed.
The outbreak of violence in the predominantly Druze province in southern Syria has highlighted frictions among Syria’s diverse communities, with minorities feeling deep distrust towards the Islamist-led government now in power.
Syrian troops were dispatched to the province on Monday to quell fighting between Druze fighters and Bedouin armed men but ended up clashing with the Druze militias. The fighting drew in Israel, which carried out air strikes on government forces on Monday and Tuesday under the aim of protecting the Druze.
A ceasefire announced by Syria’s defence ministry on Tuesday night was short-lived.
Local news outlet Sweida24 said the city of Sweida and nearby villages were coming under heavy artillery and mortar fire early on Wednesday. Syria’s defence ministry, in a statement carried by state news agency SANA, blamed outlaw groups in Sweida for breaching the truce.
The defence ministry called on residents of the city to stay indoors.
Dozens of civilians, government troops and Druze fighters have been killed since the fighting erupted on Sunday.
Civilians and Reuters reporters in the city said that government forces had looted and burned homes, stealing cars and furniture from homes on Tuesday. One man showed a Reuters reporter the body of his brother, who had been shot in the head inside their home.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday warned the Syrian government to “leave Druze alone” and that the military would continue to strike Syrian government forces until they pulled back.
U.S. Syria envoy Tom Barrack said on Tuesday that the United States was in contact with all sides “to navigate towards calm and integration”.
(Reporting by Khalil Ashawi in Damascus and Maya Gebeily in Beirut; Additional reporting by Tala Ramadan in Dubai; Writing by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Alex Richardson and Andrew Cawthorne)
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