More than 30 people have been killed and about 100 injured in sectarian fighting between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes in the southern Syrian city of Sweida, according to the the interior ministry on Monday.
The gun-battles erupted after a spate of kidnappings, including Friday’s abduction of a Druze merchant on the Damascus–Sweida highway, witnesses said. Fighting focused on the Maqwas district, home to Bedouin tribes, which armed Druze groups surrounded and seized by nightfall.
“This cycle of violence has exploded in a terrifying way and if it doesn’t end we are heading toward a bloodbath,” warned Rayan Marouf, a Druze researcher who runs the Suwayda24 monitoring site.
Bedouin fighters also stormed Druze villages on the western and northern fringes of the city. The interior ministry said security forces would “intervene directly” and urged local factions to cooperate.
A doctor at Sweida state hospital said at least 15 bodies had been taken to the morgue and some 50 wounded transferred to Sweida and neighbouring Deraa. The ministry’s initial tally put the overall toll at more than 30 dead and 100 hurt.
It is the first sectarian battle inside Sweida since Syria’s 14-year civil war ended last December, when Islamist-led rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad, who fled to Russia. Similar Druze-Sunni clashes flared in Jaramana, near Damascus, in April.
Minority fears have grown after the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March in apparent retaliation for earlier attacks by Assad loyalists.
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