Syria government forces take over Druze village in south: AFP - Region
Security forces were deployed in Sweida province following clashes between Druze fighters and Bedouin tribes that killed at least 89 people since Sunday.
The AFP correspondent saw forces under the Syrian defence ministry deployed in Al-Mazraa village, where Bedouin fighters were also located. The forces continued to advance in the direction of Sweida city.
A commander, Ezzeddine al-Shamayer, told AFP the forces "are heading toward Sweida".
Druze spiritual leaders called for calm and urged Damascus to intervene.
The Israeli army said on Monday that it struck several tanks between the villages of Al-Mazraa and Sami that were heading to Sweida.
It claimed that it would not allow the establishment of what it claimed as a "military threat in southern Syria and will operate against it".
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz claimed the Israeli new attack on Syria aimed at preventing the army from reaching the village. The Israeli strikes were "a message and a clear warning to the Syrian regime -- we will not allow harm to be done to the Druze in Syria. Israel will not stand idly by," he wrote on X.
The fighting underscores the challenges facing interim Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, whose Islamist forces ousted president Bashar al-Assad in December.
The latest fighting, which began Sunday, continued sporadically into Monday in several villages, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor and the Suwayda 24 news outlet.
The clashes reportedly erupted when a Druze vegetable vendor was seized by armed Bedouins on the main highway linking Sweida to Damascus.
The incident triggered a series of retaliatory abductions by both sides.
Syria's defence and interior ministries announced the deployment of military units to the affected areas, the establishment of safe corridors for civilians, and a commitment to "end the clashes quickly and decisively".
Bedouin and Druze factions have a longstanding feud in Sweida, and violence occasionally erupts between the two.
A surge in violence in March targeting the Alawite community -- with more than 1,700 killed -- and the subsequent attacks on Druze areas have undermined confidence in the new Syrian authorities' ability to protect minorities.
Israel -- which has occupied part of Syria's Golan Heights since 1967 -- cited the protection of the Druze to justify several strikes, including one in early May near the presidential palace in Damascus.
Since the ouster of Assad, Israel has carried out numerous strikes in Syria, destroying much of the country's military infrastructure and arsenal. It has also deployed troops into the United Nations-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights, further occupying parts of Syrian land.
* This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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