SWEIDA (Reuters) -A leading Druze spiritual leader accused the Syrian leadership in Damascus of bombarding the southern city of Sweida despite having reached an agreement to quell violence, and he called on fighters to confront Syrian troops entering the city.
The video statement by influential Druze Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri on Tuesday poses a challenge for the government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose forces toppled former leader Bashar al-Assad last December and is seeking to bring all of Syrian territory under centralised rule after nearly 14 years of war that had left the country divided into separate enclaves.
For months, Druze leaders said they did not trust the new Syrian government and pushed back against the presence of their troops, saying they would secure Sweida with their own local fighters.
Neighbouring Israel also conducted strikes on Syrian troops in Sweida and near Damascus with the stated aim of protecting the Druze minority, which is an offshoot of Islam with adherents in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
But earlier this week, a new round of heavy fighting broke out between Druze armed groups and Bedouin fighters in Sweida province, leaving dozens dead and thousands displaced. Syria’s defence and interior ministries dispatched units to quell the fighting and exert control over the province.
The Druze spiritual leadership said in a written statement on Tuesday morning that it would allow Syrian forces to enter Sweida city to stop the bloodshed, calling on armed groups to surrender their weapons and cooperate with incoming troops.
‘TOTAL WAR OF EXTERMINATION’
But hours later, al-Hajri, who has been strongly opposed to the new leadership in Damascus, said the statement had been “imposed” on them by Damascus and that Syrian troops had breached the arrangement by continuing to fire on residents.
“We are being subject to a total war of extermination,” he said in a recorded video statement, calling on all Druze “to confront this barbaric campaign with all means available”.
Convoys of Syrian army tanks, trucks and motorcycles entered parts of Sweida city by mid-morning and were continuing to fire on neighbourhoods there, a Reuters reporter in Sweida said.
The reporter said Israeli warplanes could be seen flying above the city, but there were no immediate reports of strikes.
On Monday, Israel’s military said it had carried out several strikes on tanks approaching Sweida “to prevent their arrival to the area” because they could pose a threat to Israel.
Israel said earlier this year that it would not allow Syria’s new army to deploy south of Damascus and that Sweida and neighbouring provinces should make up a demilitarized zone.
But some of those tensions had calmed after Israel and Syria began direct talks to prevent conflict in the border region between the two longtime foes.
(Reporting by Karam Masri in Sweida, Khalil Ashawi in Damascus and Maya Gebeily in Beirut; Writing by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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