BUSRA AL-HARIR, Syria (AP) — The Syrian government on Monday started evacuating Bedouin families trapped inside the city of Sweida, where Druze militiamen and Bedouin fighters have clashed for over a week.
The clashes between militias of the Druze religious minority and the Sunni Muslim clans killed hundreds and threatened to unravel Syria’s already fragile postwar transition. The clashes also led to a series of targeted sectarian attacks against the Druze community, followed by revenge attacks against the Bedouins. The U.N. International Organization for Migration said some 128,571 people were displaced in the hostilities that started with a series of tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks a week ago.
Israel also launched dozens of airstrikes in the Druze-majority Sweida province, targeting government forces who had effectively sided with the Bedouins.
Syrian state media said early Sunday that the government had coordinated with some officials in Sweida to bring in buses to evacuate some 1,500 Bedouins in the city. Syrian Interior Minister Ahmad al-Dalati told SANA that the initiative will also allow displaced civilians from Sweida to return, as the fighting has largely stopped and efforts for a complete ceasefire are ongoing.
“We have imposed a security cordon in the vicinity of Sweida to keep it secure and to stop the fighting there,' al-Dalati told the Syrian state-run news agency. ”This will preserve the path that will lead to reconciliation and stability in the province."
Bedouin families are accompanied out of Sweida
Buses filled with Bedouin families were accompanied by Syrian Arab Red Crescent vehicles and ambulances. Some families left on trucks with their belongings.
Syrian authorities did not give further details about the evacuation and how it ties into the broader agreement, following failed talks for a hostage swap deal Saturday.
However, Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that as part of the agreement, the Bedouin fighters would have to release Druze women they were holding captive, and leave the province.
U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, who has been involved in negotiations between multiple countries, said that the perpetrators of hostilities on both sides need to be held to account, and that an agreement should be reached to allow Syria's 7-month-old government to exert its authority and function fully after over a decade of conflict.
“What’s happened is horrible. It’s unthinkable,” Barrack said in Beirut after meeting officials Monday. “They (Syrian authorities) need to be held accountable, but they also need to be given responsibility” to restore order.
Bedouin fighters wait on the edge of the city
The Bedouin fighters had withdrawn from Sweida city Sunday, and alongside other tribesman from other parts of the country stood on the outskirts while security forces cordoned off the area. An aid convoy of some 32 Red Crescent vehicles entered the city, though a government delegation with another aid convoy was turned away.
After talks for a hostage swap fell through late Sunday, the Observatory and activist groups in Sweida reported hearing what they said were Israeli airstrikes and helicopters over villages where some skirmishes took place between the Bedouins and Druze militias.
The Israeli military said it was “not aware” of any overnight strikes in Syria.
Conditions are poor for displaced people
The displaced have been struggling with securing food and water, and are living in overcrowded conditions in the summer heat. Bedouin families that fled the outskirts of Sweida province into neighboring Daraa are jam-packed in abandoned buildings, with each family sharing a room. Most only brought mattresses and some clothes.
“Everyone here has brought an entire family or two with them,” said Saif al-Hajj, who fled the western Sweida countryside with a family of 11 to the town of Busra al-Harir in Daraa province. He brought chickens and ducks that he herds, but is struggling to give them enough water and bread for them to survive. “If I'm thirsty, I can't get water to drink.”
Druze who fled the city of Sweida poured into neighboring towns and villages in the province. In the village of Salkha, many are packed into overcrowded schools and family homes. A Druze resident there said there isn't enough food to go around.
She spoke on condition of anonymity out of fears for her family's security, saying that a relative was kidnapped in the village of al-Ta'la in the province.
She said he was working in a store when armed men came in and told him to hand over his weapons. Although he protested that he was a civilian and had no weapons, the armed men took him, and his location is unknown, she said.
“But we don't know who took him, if it was government security or Bedouins,” she said. “But what we're hearing from others is that most of the kidnapping was done by the Bedouins.”
The Druze community is increasingly unsure about the new government
Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has tried to appeal to the Druze community while slamming the factions loyal to spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri who have been involved in the clashes. He promised to hold accountable perpetrators of targeted attacks and other violations.
The country's Druze community largely celebrated the downfall of the Assad family that ended decades of tyrannical rule. While they had concerns about Al-Sharaa’s de facto Islamist rule, a large number wanted to approach matters diplomatically.
Al-Hijri and his supporters, though, have taken a more confrontational approach with Al-Sharaa, contrary to most other influential Druze figures. Critics also note al-Hijri’s previous allegiance to Assad.
However, the numerous cases of sectarian attacks, which included killing Druze civilians and desecrating photos of religious notables, have made the Druze more skeptical of Al-Sharaa and less optimistic of peaceful coexistence.
More than half of 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.
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Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.
