Druze fighters regain control of Sweida after US-brokered Syria-Israel ceasefire deal
Sweida, Syria - Druze fighters pushed out rival armed factions from Syria's southern city of Sweida on Saturday, a monitor said, after the government ordered a ceasefire following a US-brokered deal to avert further Israeli military intervention.
Fighting nonetheless persisted in other parts of Sweida province, even as the Druze regained control of their city following days of fierce battle with armed Bedouin supported by tribal gunmen from other parts of Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said that "tribal fighters withdrew from Sweida city on Saturday evening" after Druze fighters launched a large-scale attack.
Israel had bombed government forces in both Sweida and Damascus earlier this week to force their withdrawal after they were accused of summary executions and other abuses against Druze civilians during their brief deployment in the southern province.
More than 900 people have been killed in Sweida since Sunday as sectarian clashes between the Druze and Bedouin drew in the Islamist-led government, Israel, and armed tribes from other parts of Syria.
Earlier Saturday, an AFP correspondent still saw dozens of torched homes and vehicles and armed men setting fire to shops after looting them.
But in the evening, Bassem Fakhr, spokesman for the Men of Dignity, one of the two largest Druze armed groups, told AFP there was "no Bedouin presence in the city."
Over 900 people reported dead in Sweida: "No more room in the morgue"
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said at least 940 people had been killed in the violence since Sunday.
They included 326 Druze fighters and 262 Druze civilians, 165 of whom were summarily executed, according to the Observatory.
They also included 312 government security personnel and 21 Sunni Bedouin, three of them civilians who were "summarily executed by Druze fighters."
Another 15 government troops were killed in Israeli strikes, the Observatory said.
Omar Obeid, a doctor at the government hospital and the president of the Sweida branch of the Order of Physicians, reported to AFP that the facility has "no more room in the morgue – the bodies are in the street."
Syria's Information Minister Hamza al-Mustafa on Saturday evening said that after the first phase of the ceasefire, which began on Saturday and involved the deployment of security forces to the province, a second phase would see the opening of humanitarian corridors.
Raed al-Saleh, Syria's minister for emergencies and disaster management, told state television that "the humanitarian situation is bad" and that convoys were waiting to enter Sweida when "the appropriate conditions" present themselves.
According to the United Nations, the fighting has displaced least 87,000 people.
Cover photo: OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP