ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Clashes have continued between Druze fighters and tribal groups in Syria’s southern province of Suwayda, pushing the death toll to over 900 despite an internationally sponsored ceasefire announced earlier in the day, a watchdog stated on Saturday.
There are “renewed clashes in the western neighbourhoods of Al-Suwaidaa city between tribesmen and local gunmen from the Druze community following the breach of the international-sponsored ceasefire agreement which was reached today,” stated the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
“The number of fatalities in armed clashes, exchange of bombardment, extrajudicial executions and Israeli airstrikes in different Syrian provinces… has increased to 940,” the monitor stated.
The violence between armed Druze groups and Bedouin tribes began on Sunday.
On Saturday morning, Washington’s Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack announced that the United States had brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Syria. Israel has come out in support of the Druze and hit several targets, including Syrian state forces and an airstrike on the building of the defence ministry in Damascus.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa confirmed the agreement that includes the deployment of state security forces to Suwayda. Government forces had pulled out of the province on Wednesday.
Mazloum Abdi, commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that controls the northeast of the country (known to Kurds as Rojava), praised the efforts that led to a ceasefire, describing them as vital steps “in support of civil peace.”
Elham Ahmed, co-chair of Rojava’s Foreign Relations Office, in a post on X on Saturday, expressed concern over the worsening humanitarian situation in Suwayda, where civilians, she said, “face severe hardship due to siege and deteriorating conditions.”
She said the Rojava administration is ready to open a humanitarian corridor to Suwayda.
Opening humanitarian corridors is part of the ceasefire agreement, Syrian Information Minister Hamza al-Mustafa said on Saturday.
The ceasefire plan, according to the minister, consists of three phases: the initial deployment of internal security forces to de-escalate clashes and secure key routes, followed by the opening of humanitarian corridors between Daraa and Suwayda to allow the evacuation of civilians and wounded, and finally, the gradual reactivation of state institutions and full restoration of law and order.
“This is the path Suwayda needs after months of tension and exhaustion,” Mustafa said.
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