Syrian government starts evacuating Bedouin families from Sweida in bid to end weeklong clashes
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. The clashes also led to a series of targeted sectarian attacks against the Druze community, followed by revenge attacks against the Bedouins. The U.N. International Organization for Migration said some 128,571 people were displaced in the hostilities that started with a series of tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks a week ago.
Israel also launched dozens of airstrikes in the Druze-majority Sweida province, targeting government forces who had effectively sided with the Bedouins.
Syrian state media said early Sunday that the government had coordinated with some officials in Sweida to bring in buses to evacuate some 1,500 Bedouins in the city. Syrian Interior Minister Ahmad al-Dalati told SANA that the initiative will also allow displaced civilians from Sweida to return, as the fighting has largely stopped and efforts for a complete ceasefire are ongoing.
'We have imposed a security cordon in the vicinity of Sweida to keep it secure and to stop the fighting there,' al-Dalati told the Syrian state-run news agency. 'This will preserve the path that will lead to reconciliation and stability in the province.'
Buses filled with Bedouin families were accompanied by Syrian Arab Red Crescent vehicles and ambulances. Some families left on trucks with their belongings.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Spectator
3 hours ago
- Spectator
Boredom is Rachel Reeves's secret weapon
When French General Bosquet watched the 600 men of the Light Brigade charge helplessly into the Russian heavy artillery at Balaclava he muttered 'c'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre'. Well, history repeats first as tragedy then as farce. And so today, those words came to mind as I watched Rachel Reeves prepare to charge into the grapeshot offered by the House of Lord's economic affairs committee. Only without the 'c'est magnifique' bit. Perhaps Reeves' plan is to bore the markets into submission: after all, the stock exchange can't crash if everyone's asleep Behind the Chancellor sat a boy in a lanyard bearing the legend 'work experience'. One got the sense that it almost would have been kinder to let him have a crack. Reeves began by answering a simple question about the nature of her growth plan by committing a variety of crimes against the good use of the English language. It was all 'sorta', 'kinda', 'um' and 'er'. There were endless managerial platitudes; she spoke of 'embedding stability,' and hailed the 'three pillars of our growth strategy'. It was as if, rather than marshalling the Bedouin, Lawrence of Arabia had instead done a lengthy stint at Deloitte. 'Different eras require different growth strategies,' she sagely informed their lordships when quizzed about her infamous fiscal rules. 'We've sort of got these three pillars that we think about', which was reassuring. Imagine a builder saying, 'You've sort of got these walls keeping your roof on'. As Reeves prevaricated and blustered away for the next couple of hours, relying on being as boring as possible in her answers which were simultaneously exceptionally long while relaying almost no useful information. Perhaps her plan is to bore the markets into submission: after all, the stock exchange can't crash if everyone's asleep. One thing that did draw attention was the higher quality of questions compared to any Commons Committee. Lord Agnew asked about stablecoin and tokenised deposits. Lord Petitgas brought in the nuances between the Bank of England's and the Office for Budget Responsibility's GDP predictions. The 9th Baron Londesborough asked an apposite question about the productivity lag. Lord Londesborough, an entrepreneur and foreign affairs expert, is soon to be booted out of the upper chamber by the government's spiteful and philistinic ejection of the hereditary peers. Apparently he is less legitimate than the cadre of lobby chimps who normally sit behind Reeves in the lower house. On the subject of which, back in the bug tank, Local Government Minister Jim McMahon was standing in for Big Ange on the question of Birmingham's bins. McMahon has the delivery and rhetorical skill of a primary school child reading a book with chapters for the first time. Plodding away through his notes, he kept on asking if questioners would 'let him be clear' before providing absolutely no clarity whatsoever. 'C'était moronique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre,' as General Bosquet might have said. Sometimes doing this job makes you question whether representative democracy was such a good idea after all.
Powys County Times
4 hours ago
- Powys County Times
1,400 killed in sectarian violence in coastal Syria in March, committee says
More than 1,400 people, most of them civilians, were killed in several days of sectarian violence on Syria's coast earlier this year, a government committee tasked with investigating it has said. The violence was the first major incident to emerge after the ousting of long-time President Bashar Assad in December. It said there was no evidence that Syria's new military leaders ordered attacks on the Alawite community there, to which Mr Assad belonged. Nearly 300 people suspected of committing crimes including murder, robbery, torture and looting and burning of homes and businesses were identified during the four-month investigation and referred for prosecution, and 37 people have been arrested, officials told journalists. They did not say how many suspects were members of security forces. The committee's report came as Syria reels from a new round of sectarian violence in the south, which again has threatened to upend the country's fragile recovery from nearly 14 years of civil war. The violence on the coast began on March 6 when armed groups loyal to Mr Assad attacked security forces of the new government, killing 238 of them, the committee said. In response, security forces descended on the coast from other areas of the country, joined by thousands of armed civilians. In total, some 200,000 armed men mobilised, the committee said. As they entered neighbourhoods and villages, some – including members of military factions – committed 'widespread, serious violations against civilians', committee spokesperson Yasser al-Farhan said. In some cases, armed men asked civilians whether they belonged to the Alawite sect and 'committed violations based on this', the spokesperson said. The committee, however, found that the 'sectarian motives were mostly based on revenge, not ideology', he said. Judge Jumaa al-Anzi, the committee's chairman, said that 'we have no evidence that the (military) leaders gave orders to commit violations'. He also said investigators had not received reports of girls or women being kidnapped. Some rights groups, including a United Nations commission, have documented cases of Alawite women being kidnapped in the months since the violence. There have been ongoing, although scattered, reports of Alawites being killed, robbed and extorted since the violence. Tens of thousands of members of the minority sect have fled to neighbouring Lebanon. There have been echoes of the coastal violence in the new clashes in the southern province of Sweida over the past two weeks. Those clashes broke out between Sunni Muslim Bedouin clans and armed groups of the Druze religious minority, and government security forces who intervened to restore order ended up siding with the Bedouins. Members of the security forces allegedly killed Druze civilians and looted and burned homes. Druze armed groups launched revenge attacks on Bedouin communities. Hundreds have been killed, and the UN says more than 128,500 people have been displaced. The violence has largely stopped as a ceasefire takes told. The committee chairman said the violence in Sweida is 'painful for all Syrians' but 'beyond the jurisdiction' of his committee.
Western Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Western Telegraph
1,400 killed in sectarian violence in coastal Syria in March, committee says
The violence was the first major incident to emerge after the ousting of long-time President Bashar Assad in December. It said there was no evidence that Syria's new military leaders ordered attacks on the Alawite community there, to which Mr Assad belonged. Nearly 300 people suspected of committing crimes including murder, robbery, torture and looting and burning of homes and businesses were identified during the four-month investigation and referred for prosecution, and 37 people have been arrested, officials told journalists. Fighting has also taken place near Sweida city in southern Syria (Omar Sanadiki/AP) They did not say how many suspects were members of security forces. The committee's report came as Syria reels from a new round of sectarian violence in the south, which again has threatened to upend the country's fragile recovery from nearly 14 years of civil war. The violence on the coast began on March 6 when armed groups loyal to Mr Assad attacked security forces of the new government, killing 238 of them, the committee said. In response, security forces descended on the coast from other areas of the country, joined by thousands of armed civilians. In total, some 200,000 armed men mobilised, the committee said. As they entered neighbourhoods and villages, some – including members of military factions – committed 'widespread, serious violations against civilians', committee spokesperson Yasser al-Farhan said. In some cases, armed men asked civilians whether they belonged to the Alawite sect and 'committed violations based on this', the spokesperson said. The committee, however, found that the 'sectarian motives were mostly based on revenge, not ideology', he said. Judge Jumaa al-Anzi, the committee's chairman, said that 'we have no evidence that the (military) leaders gave orders to commit violations'. He also said investigators had not received reports of girls or women being kidnapped. Some rights groups, including a United Nations commission, have documented cases of Alawite women being kidnapped in the months since the violence. There have been ongoing, although scattered, reports of Alawites being killed, robbed and extorted since the violence. Tens of thousands of members of the minority sect have fled to neighbouring Lebanon. There have been echoes of the coastal violence in the new clashes in the southern province of Sweida over the past two weeks. Those clashes broke out between Sunni Muslim Bedouin clans and armed groups of the Druze religious minority, and government security forces who intervened to restore order ended up siding with the Bedouins. Members of the security forces allegedly killed Druze civilians and looted and burned homes. Druze armed groups launched revenge attacks on Bedouin communities. Hundreds have been killed, and the UN says more than 128,500 people have been displaced. The violence has largely stopped as a ceasefire takes told. The committee chairman said the violence in Sweida is 'painful for all Syrians' but 'beyond the jurisdiction' of his committee. 'Time will reveal what happened and who is responsible for it,' he said.
