Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority today after US intervention to help achieve a truce in fighting between government forces and Druze fighters.
Overnight, the Islamist-led government's troops withdrew from the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, where scores of people have been killed in days of conflict pitting Druze fighters against government troops and Bedouin tribes.
But in a worrying development, a military commander for the Bedouin said their fighters had launched a new offensive in Sweida province against Druze fighters and that the truce only applied to government forces.
The Bedouins, a collection of Sunni Muslim farmers who have long-standing frictions with the Druze, were seeking to free detained colleagues, he said.
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A round of fighting between the Bedouins and Druze earlier this week prompted the government to send troops to Sweida to quell the fighting, but the violence then grew until a ceasefire was declared.
The violence has underlined the challenges that Mr Sharaa faces in stabilising Syria and exerting centralised rule, despite his warming ties with the United States and his administration's evolving security contacts with Israel.
One local journalist said he had counted more than 60 bodies in the streets of Sweida in south Syria this morning. Ryan Marouf of Suwayda 24 said he had found a family of 12 people killed in one house, including women and an elderly man.
Yesterday, Israel launched airstrikes in Damascus, while also hitting government forces in the south, demanding they withdraw and saying Israel aimed to protect Syrian Druze - part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel.
Israel, which bombed Syria frequently under the rule of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, has struck the country repeatedly this year, describing its new leaders as barely disguised jihadists and saying it will not allow them to deploy forces in areas of southern Syria near its border.
Addressing Syrians today, interim President Sharaa accused Israel of seeking to "dismantle the unity of our people", saying it had "consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime".
Mr Sharaa, commander of an al Qaeda faction before cutting ties with the group in 2016, said protecting Druze citizens and their rights was "our priority" and rejected any attempt to drag them into the hands of an "external party".
He also vowed to hold to account those who committed violations against "our Druze people".
Watch: Syrian news presenter ducks for cover after explosion goes off behind her
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had established a policy demanding the demilitarisation of a swathe of territory near the border, stretching from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the Druze Mountain, east of Sweida.
He reiterated Israel's policy to protect the Druze.
Syria had sent "its army south of Damascus into an area that was supposed to remain demilitarised, and it began massacring Druze. This was something we could not accept in any way", he said, adding: "It is a ceasefire achieved through strength."
Read more:
Who are the Druze and why is Israel hitting Syria?
Syria's sectarian mix a dilemma for new rulers
The Syrian Network for Human Rights said it had documented 193 dead in four days of fighting, among them medical personnel, women and children.
The network's head Fadel Abdulghany said the figure included cases of field executions by both sides, Syrians killed by Israeli strikes, and others killed in clashes but that it would take time to break down the figures for each category.
A Sweida resident, who asked to be identified only by his first name Amer for fear of reprisals, shared a video of his neighbours slain in their home. It showed a lifeless man in a chair, an elderly man with a gunshot wound to his right temple on the floor and a younger man, face down in a pool of blood.
Amid reports of revenge attacks on Bedouin today, leading Druze Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajari called for peaceful Bedouin tribes to be respected and not harmed.
One reporter in Sweida this week saw government fighters loot and burn homes, including just before they departed Sweida overnight. Fighters also shaved off the moustaches of Druze men.
Moustaches are worn by Druze sheikhs and many other Druze men as a symbol of religious and cultural identity with spiritual significance.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday the United States had engaged all parties and steps had been agreed to end "this troubling and horrifying situation".
Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, leader of the Druze in Israel, said the situation for Druze in Syria was very difficult but he hoped it would calm down.
"Israel's response was required - of course," Mr Tarif said." If they (Israel) hadn't responded there would have been a much worse situation."
Mr Tarif said that Druze who entered from Syria yesterday have returned. The Druze in Israel would support normalisation between Israel and Syria but Druze in Syria must be respected, protected and given freedom of worship, he added.
Mr Sharaa credited US, Arab and Turkish mediation for saving "the region from an uncertain fate".
He faces challenges to stitch Syria back together in the face of deep misgivings from groups that fear Islamist rule. In March, mass killings of members of the Alawite minority exacerbated the mistrust.
Israel's airstrikes yesterday blew up part of Syria's defence ministry and hit near the presidential palace as it vowed to destroy government forces attacking Druze in southern Syria.
Erdogan accuses Israel of using Druze as pretext to expand into Syria
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of using the Druze minority in Syria as a pretext for expanding into the war-torn country.
"Israel, using the Druze as an excuse, has been expanding its banditry into neighbouring Syria over the past two days," Mr Erdogan said in a televised speech after the weekly cabinet meeting.
"I want to state this once again, clearly and directly: Israel is a lawless, unruly, unprincipled, spoiled, pampered, and greedy terrorist state," he said.
"At this stage, the biggest problem in our region is Israel's aggression... If the monster is not stopped immediately, it will not hesitate to throw first our region, then the world, into flames."
