Government troops and allied militias began withdrawing from the mostly Druze city of Sweida in southern Syria on Thursday, after Israeli strikes to defend the sect and US demands on Damascus to pull out.
“Withdrawal of the Syrian Arab Army from Sweida has begun,” Syria's state news agency said. The army's mission to pursue lawless groups had ended and an agreement was reached with some Druze figures, it added. Residents said some of the attacking forces had pulled out but others remained, mainly in the city's southern districts and at the main hospital.
Late on Wednesday, US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Washington had called on the Syrian government “to withdraw their military, in order to allow all sides to be able to de-escalate”.
Syrian authorities then announced an “immediate and complete halt” to their offensive and a ceasefire with some but not all representatives of the Druze community. The deal came hours after Israel launched air strikes on Damascus.
It is the second time since April that outside intervention has halted major attacks against the Druze, a minority of several hundred thousand in Syria who follow an offshoot of Islam that is also present in Israel, Jordan and Lebanon.
Sources in Jordan, which borders the wider province of Sweida, said several hundred government troops and auxiliaries remained in the city on Thursday, including snipers still in central neighbourhoods. But talks were under way with Sweida's Druze defenders over their departure, the sources added. The city is now mostly back under the control of Druze groups loyal to Sheikh Hikmat Al Hijri, the main figure in a triumvirate that constitutes the spiritual leadership of the sect.
A four-day offensive in Sweida by elite Syrian government forces, including sniper units, night mission brigades and allied militias, has since Sunday killed more than 200 Druze, including civilians. Among them were at least a dozen men who were executed after forces loyal to the government stormed buildings, according to the sources in Jordan.
Israel strikes Damascus – in pictures
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The damage from Israeli strikes on the Syrian army headquarters and Defence Ministry in Damascus. AFP -
Syrian security troops stand guard in front of the heavily damaged Syrian army and Defence Ministry headquarters. AFP -
Civil defence workers inspect the damage. AP -
Men walk among the debris in Damascus. Reuters -
More Israeli strikes in Damascus. AFP -
A member of the Syrian security forces near the army headquarters and Defence Ministry. AFP -
Members of Syrian security forces in front of an ambulance in Damascus. AFP -
Smoke rises in Damascus. Reuters -
Syrian security forces near the military headquarters in Umayyad Square, Damascus. AFP
Etana, a research and policy centre in Amman specialising in Syrian affairs, said it had received reports of 200 abductions of civilians in Sweida by pro-government militias, who have been a major component of the offensive. Those abducted were taken to nearby Deraa, the reports said.
The attacking forces included about 450 foreign fighters posted by the government in Sweida. Among them are members of the ultra-hardline Turkistan Islamic Party. “This contingent are already being accused of various violations against local civilians,” Etana said.
A senior western diplomat in Amman said Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara had “overplayed his hand” by apparently calculating that the US would value newly developed ties with his government enough to give his forces a free hand in Sweida.
“The Americans could not let the pogrom in Sweida continue,” the diplomat said. Another factor was Israeli army pressure, the diplomat added, which was partly driven by increased agitation among the Druze minority in Israel about the killing of their co-religionists in Sweida.
Israel had responded to demands by Sheikh Mouaffaq Tarif, leader of Israel's Druze minority, to intervene more forcefully in Syria to stop the government offensive, the diplomat said.
Syrian militias forcibly shave men's moustaches in Druze heartland
On Wednesday, Israel widened its air strikes on Syria, with attacks on the main military compounds in central Damascus.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Syrian regime had been “massacring” the Druze and repeated an insistence that the whole area south of Damascus, from the Golan Heights to the Druze Mountains, must be “demilitarised”.
“We acted, and we will continue to act as necessary,” he said.
In April, Israel also intervened militarily to halt attacks by government militias in which dozens of Druze were killed in Damascus and Sweida.
Mr Al Shara said the latest Israeli attacks constituted “a wide-scale targeting of civilian and government facilities”. But he also said those behind the violence against the Druze would be held accountable. “We are keen on holding accountable those who transgressed and abused our Druze people,” he said in a televised address early on Thursday.
Suwayda 24, a network of local journalists, said some pro-government troops remained in southern districts of Sweida on Thursday carrying out looting, amid fears of more street killings.
The main hospital in the city has been captured by the army, with bodies, mostly from the Druze community, scattered in the hallways after the morgue became full, the journalist network said.
The Druze's spiritual leadership in Syria, led by Sheikh Al Hijri, has been critical of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, the splinter group of Al Qaeda that formed the new Syrian government under Mr Al Shara last year after ousting former president Bashar Al Assad. Mr Al Hijri, previously a key figure in a civil disobedience movement against the Assad regime, has labelled the new government extremist and anti-democratic.
Mr Al Hijri said he was not part of the ceasefire deal with government troops announced on Thursday. But many of Mr Al Hijri's Druze critics, who previously advocated accommodating the HTS government, have now coalesced around him.
Among them is Maher Sharfeddine, a writer and politician, who said he is “hand in hand with the victory leader”, referring to Mr Al Hijri.
Mr Sharafeddine said government forces had left behind in Sweida “a trail of atrocities that will become a lesson for us, before we rush again to partner” with Damascus.
Many Druze have opposed attempts by the government to station security forces from outside the area in Sweida, saying such personnel should be drawn from the local population.
Sweida is home to most of Syria's registered 800,000 Druze. But many have left, particularly during the country's 13-year civil war, with about 270,000 remaining in the province.
