Syria troops quit Druze region

AFP | Damascus

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Syrian troops pulled out of the Druze heartland province of Sweida yesterday on orders from the government, leaving bodies strewn on the street, journalists reported from the provincial capital.

The southern province has been gripped by deadly sectarian bloodshed since Sunday, with hundreds reportedly killed in clashes pitting Druze fighters against Sunni Bedouin tribes and the army and its allies.

In a televised speech, Islamist interim President Ahmed alSharaa said community leaders would resume control over security in Sweida after the deployment of government troops on Tuesday fuelled the sectarian bloodshed and prompted Israeli military intervention.

Government troops told AFP that the order to withdraw came shortly before midnight (2100 GMT Wednesday) and they completed their pullout from the province at dawn.

A photographer counted 15 bodies on the street in the centre of Sweida yesterday after government forces pulled out.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said more than 370 people have been killed in sectarian clashes in the city since Sunday.

Israel had pounded government troops with air strikes during their brief deployment to the southern province and also struck army headquarters in Damascus, warning that its strikes would intensify until the government pulled back.

Sharaa announced in a televised address that “responsibility” for security in Sweida would be returned to community leaders “based on the supreme national interest”.

Promise of ‘protection’

Sharaa, whose interim government has had troubled relations with ethnic and religious minority groups since it toppled veteran leader Bashar al-Assad in December, also pledged to protect the Druze.

“We are keen on holding accountable those who transgressed and abused our Druze people, as they are under the protection and responsibility of the state,” he said.

March saw massacres of more than 1,700 mostly Alawite civilians in their hub on the Mediterranean coast, with government-affiliated groups blamed for most of the killings.

Government forces also battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead.