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MAZRAA: Renewed clashes broke out overnight between Druze armed groups and members of Bedouin clans in southern Syria, and government forces were preparing to deploy again to the area Friday after pulling out under a ceasefire agreement that halted several days of violence earlier this week, officials said.
Government security forces agreed with some of the Druze factions that they would re-enter the area to impose stability and protect state institutions, according to two Syrian officials who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Israel agreed to allow limited access by Syrian forces into the Sweida area of southern Syria for the next two days, an Israeli official said on Friday after days of bloodshed in and around Syria’s Druze city of Sweida
“In light of the ongoing instability in southwest Syria, Israel has agreed to allow limited entry of the (Syrian) internal security forces into Sweida district for the next 48 hours,” the official, who declined to be named, told reporters.
Syrian government forces had largely pulled out of the Druze-majority southern province of Sweida after days of clashes with militias linked to the Druze religious minority that threatened to unravel the country’s fragile post-war transition.
The conflict drew airstrikes against Syrian forces by neighboring Israel before most of the fighting was halted by a truce announced Wednesday that was mediated by the US, Turkiye and Arab countries. Under that agreement, Druze factions and clerics would be left to maintain internal security in Sweida, Syria’s interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa said Thursday.
The clashes initially began between Druze militias and local Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes Sunday before government forces intervened, nominally to restore order, but ended up taking the Bedouins’ side against the Druze. The fighting killed hundreds of people over four days, with allegations that government-affiliated fighters executed Druze civilians and looted and burned homes.
Israel intervened, launching dozens of airstrikes on convoys of government fighters and striking the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters in central Damascus in a major escalation of its involvement.
The Druze form a substantial community in Israel, where they are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the Israeli military.
After the ceasefire and withdrawal of government forces, clashes once again flared between the Druze and Bedouin groups in parts of Sweida province. State media reported Druze militias carried out revenge attacks against Bedouin communities, leading to a wave of displacement.
The governor of neighboring Daraa province said in a statement that more than 1,000 families had been displaced to the area from Sweida as a result of “attacks on Bedouin tribes by outlaw groups.”
Meanwhile, Bedouin groups arrived Friday from other areas of Syria to join the fight.
On the outskirts of Sweida, groups of them gathered in front of buildings that had been set ablaze. An armed man who gave his name only as Abu Mariam (“father of Mariam“) said he had come from the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor to “support the oppressed.”
“We will not return to our homes until we crush Al-Hijri and his ilk,” he said, referring to a prominent Druze leader opposed to the government in Damascus, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri. “We have nothing to do with civilians and innocent people as long as they stay in their homes.”
The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.
While predominantly Druze, Sweida is also home to Bedouin tribes who are Sunni Muslim and have periodically clashed with the Druze over the years. The latest escalation began with members of a Bedouin tribe in Sweida setting up a checkpoint and attacking and robbing a Druze man, which triggered tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings.
Ahmed Aba Zeid, a Syrian researcher who has studied armed groups in southern Syria, said there is “no specific reason” for the historic tensions between the groups.
“All of Syria is full of social problems that have no reason,” he said.
In this case, however, “The state exploited the latest problem to try to change the situation in Sweida, and this only increased the scope of it,” he said.
Israel’s deep distrust of Syria’s new Islamist-led leadership appears to be at odds with the United States, which said it did not support the recent Israeli strikes on Syria.
The US intervened to help secure the earlier truce between government forces and Druze fighters, and the White House said on Thursday that it appeared to be holding.
Syrian leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who has worked to establish warmer ties with the US, accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority.

With Agencies

BAGHDAD: Officials struggled Friday to identify more than a dozen bodies pulled from a deadly shopping mall fire in Iraq, amid ongoing investigations into what caused the blaze.

An Iraqi medical official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment said the final death toll was 63, including 18 bodies that could not be identified due to the severity of the burns and would undergo DNA testing.

The Corniche Hypermarket mall in the town of Kut in Wasit province, a five-story building containing restaurants, shops and a supermarket, had opened just days before the blaze, which officials said broke out late Wednesday on the second floor in an area selling perfume and cosmetics.

Civil defense crews were able to rescue 45 people from the burning building. Officials said that most of those who died were trapped on the upper floors.

While the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, officials blamed lack of safety standards in the building for the scale of the tragedy.

Provincial Gov. Mohammed Al-Miyahi has said that the building owner did not implement fire safety measures and had not applied for required permits.

The provincial council of Wasit on Thursday voted to form committees to carry out building safety inspections and to suspend the director of Kut municipality and the director of occupational safety until investigations into the fire are complete.

Al-Miyahi said Thursday that legal complaints had been filed against the building owner and shopping center owner, who could not be reached for comment. The governor said in a press conference that the son of the shopping center owner and other members of his family were among the victims in the blaze.

Poor building standards have often contributed to tragic fires in Iraq. In July 2021, a blaze at a hospital in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah that killed between 60 to 92 people was determined to have been fueled by highly flammable, low-cost type of “sandwich panel” cladding that is illegal in Iraq.

In 2023, more than 100 people died in a fire at a wedding hall in the predominantly Christian area of Hamdaniya in Nineveh province after the ceiling panels above a pyrotechnic machine burst into flames.