Syria’s Bedouins Say They Withdrew From Sweida After Clashes
Tribal and bedouin fighters gather in Sweida, amid clashes with Druze gunmen on July 19.
Photographer: Abdulaziz Ketaz/AFP/Getty Images
MAZRAA, Syria (AP) — Syria's armed Bedouin clans announced Sunday they had withdrawn from the Druze-majority city of Sweida following weeklong clashes and a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, as humanitarian aid convoys started to enter the battered southern city.
The clashes between militias of the Druze religious minority and the Sunni Muslim clans killed hundreds and threatened to unravel Syria's already fragile postwar transition. Israel also launched dozens of airstrikes in the Druze-majority Sweida province, targeting government forces who had effectively sided with the Bedouins.