Syrian troops quit Druze heartland after violence leaves over 500 dead

SWEIDA, Syria: Syrian troops pulled out of the Druze heartland province of Sweida on orders from the Islamist-led government, following days of deadly clashes that killed more than 500 people, according to a war monitor.

The southern province has been gripped by deadly sectarian bloodshed since Sunday, with hundreds reportedly killed in clashes pitting Druze fighters against Sunni Bedouin tribes and the army and its allies.

The city of Sweida was a shadow of its former self on Thursday, AFP correspondents on the ground reported, with shops looted, homes burnt and bodies in the streets.

“What I saw of the city looked as if it had just emerged from a flood or a natural disaster,” Hanadi Obeid, a 39-year-old doctor, told AFP.

In a televised speech, Islamist interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said community leaders would resume control over security in Sweida after the deployment of government troops on Tuesday fuelled the sectarian bloodshed and prompted Israeli military intervention.

An AFP photographer counted 15 bodies on the street in the centre of Sweida on Thursday after government forces pulled out.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said more than 500 people have been killed in sectarian clashes in the Sweida province since Sunday.

Israel had hammered government troops with air strikes during their brief deployment to the southern province and also struck the military headquarters in Damascus, warning that its strikes would intensify until the Islamist-led government pulled back.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified Israel’s two-pronged strategic goal in Syria on Thursday — ensuring southern Syria is demilitarized and protecting the Druze of that region.

Netanyahu defined southern Syria as an area running from the Golan Heights to Jabal al-Druze, a region encompassing nearly all of the Sweida governorate, recently the site of massacres perpetrated by regime-linked Syrian forces against the Druze community.

The Syrian regime violated both red lines, Netanyahu said. It sent troops south of Damascus into an area that was supposed to remain demilitarized, and it began massacring Druze.