Syria announces ceasefire after sectarian violence
[July 15, 2025]
By GHAITH ALSAYED and ABBY SEWELL
BUSRA AL-HARIR, Syria (AP) — Syria 's defence minister announced a
ceasefire shortly after government forces entered a key city in Sweida
province on Tuesday.
The announcement came a day after sectarian clashes that killed dozens,
and after Israel launched strikes in the area.
Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said in a statement that after an
“agreement with the city's notables and dignitaries, we will respond
only to the sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw
groups.”
The clashes began with a series of tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks
between members of local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions
in the southern province, a center of the Druze community.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel
Katz said in a joint statement that Israel had struck to “prevent the
Syrian regime from harming” the Druze “and to ensure disarmament in the
area adjacent to our borders with Syria.”
Syrian government security forces sent to restore order on Monday also
clashed with Druze armed groups. During the day, Israel struck Syrian
government military tank and said it was acting to protect the Druze
religious minority.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it had struck “military
vehicles belonging to the Syrian regime.” In Israel, the Druze are seen
as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces.
State-run news agency SANA did not give any details about Tuesday’s
strike. However, the Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights said Israel struck a tank belonging to the Syrian
military as forces began to move in deeper into Sweida city.
‘Total war of annihilation’
Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syria’s new leaders since
the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a lightning rebel offensive
led by Sunni Islamist insurgent groups in December, saying it does not
want militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a
U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the
Golan Heights and have launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites
in Syria.
Earlier Tuesday, religious leaders of the Druze community in Syria
called for armed factions that have been clashing with government forces
to surrender their weapons and cooperate with authorities as they
entered the provincial capital of Sweida. One of the main religious
authorities later released a video statement retracting the call.
The initial statement called for armed factions in Sweida to “cooperate
with the forces of the Ministry of Interior, not to resist their entry,
and to hand over their weapons to the Ministry of Interior.” The
statement also called for “opening a dialogue with the Syrian government
to address the repercussions of the events.”
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The commander of Internal Security in Sweida Governorate, Brig. Gen.
Ahmad al-Dalati, welcomed the statement and called for “all
religious authorities and social activists to adopt a unified
national stance that supports the Ministry of Interior’s measures to
extend state authority and achieve security throughout the
province.”
Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, a Druze spiritual leader who has been
opposed to the government in Damascus, said in a video message that
the previous statement by Druze leaders had been issued after an
agreement with the authorities in Damascus but “they broke the
promise and continued the indiscriminate shelling of unarmed
civilians.”
“We are being subjected to a total war of annihilation,” he said.
Some videos on social media had showed armed fighters with Druze
captives, inciting sectarian slogans and beating them.
Sectarian and revenge attacks
The Druze religious sect is a minority group that began as a
10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More
than half 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.
Clashes have on several occasions broken out between forces loyal to
the government and Druze fighters since the fall of Assad.
The latest round of fighting has raised fears of another spiral of
sectarian violence. In March, an ambush on government security
forces by fighters loyal to Assad triggered days of sectarian and
revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians were killed, most of them
members of the minority Alawite sect that Assad belongs to. A
commission was formed to investigate the attacks but has not made
its findings public.
The conflict has also raised concerns about escalating Israeli
intervention.
While many Druze in Syria have said they do not want Israel to
intervene on their behalf, factions from the Druze minority have
also been suspicious of the new authorities in Damascus,
particularly after the attacks on Alawites and other minority
groups.
——
Associated Press writer Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut and Tia Goldenberg
in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.
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