At least 30 people have been killed in armed clashes between Sunni Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze militias in southern Syria, the country’s interior ministry says.
The violence erupted in the predominantly Druze city in the province of Suweida on Sunday, two days after a Druze merchant was reportedly abducted on the highway to Damascus.
The interior ministry called the situation “a dangerous escalation” and said security forces were being deployed to try to restore calm.
It is the latest outbreak of deadly sectarian violence in the country since Islamist-led rebel forces overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in December.
Syria’s many minority communities – including the Druze, whose religion is an offshoot of Shia Islam with its own unique identity and beliefs – have expressed concerns over the new authorities’ pledges to protect them.
Sunday’s clashes between Bedouin tribesmen and Druze militias began in the al-Maqwas neighbourhood of Suweida city.
The area, which is inhabited by Bedouin, was reportedly encircled and later seized by armed Druze fighters.
The fighting soon spread into other parts of Suweida province, with tribesmen reportedly launching attacks on Druze towns and villages on the city’s western and northern outskirts.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, said the towns of Sumay and Mazraah were shelled, and that residents of the village of Tayrah fled after armed men entered the outskirts and set fire to several homes.
It reported that 37 people were killed – 27 Druze, including two children, and 10 Bedouin.
The interior ministry said: “This dangerous escalation comes in light of the absence of relevant official institutions, leading to worsening chaos, a collapse of the security situation, and the local community’s inability to contain the crisis despite repeated calls for calm.”
It added that interior ministry forces, in co-ordination with the defence ministry, would “begin direct intervention in the area to end the conflict and impose order”.
The governor of Suweida, Mustapha al-Bakur, called on his constituents to “exercise self-restraint and respond to national calls for reform”.
Several Syrian Druze spiritual leaders also appealed for calm.
On Sunday night, local activist-run news outlet Suwayda 24 said that mediation between Bedouin and Druze leaders aimed at de-escalating tensions had resulted in the release of people kidnapped by both sides during the clashes.
However, on Monday morning it reported that fighting had erupted in the western countryside of Suweida after drones attacked villages at the same time as government forces deployed in nearby areas of eastern Deraa province.
At the start of May, more than 130 people were reportedly killed in clashes between Druze gunmen, security forces and allied Sunni Islamist fighters in two suburbs of the capital Damascus and Suweida province.
In the wake of that fighting, the government reached an agreement with Druze militias to hire local security forces in Suweida province from their ranks.