Renewed overnight clashes broke out between Druze armed groups and Bedouin tribes in southern Syria, prompting government forces, who had withdrawn under a recent cease-fire, to prepare for redeployment to the volatile region on Friday, officials said.
Two Syrian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said security forces had reached an agreement with some Druze factions to return and restore order, aiming to stabilize the area and safeguard state institutions.
The Syrian military had mostly withdrawn from the Druze-majority province of Suwayda earlier this week after intense fighting with Druze-linked forces that threatened to derail the country’s fragile postwar recovery.
The conflict drew airstrikes from neighboring Israel against Syrian forces in defense of the Druze minority, before most of the fighting was halted by a truce announced Wednesday and mediated by the U.S., Türkiye and several Arab countries.
Under that agreement, Druze factions and clerics would be left to maintain internal security in Suwayda, Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa said Thursday.
The clashes initially began Sunday between Druze forces and local Bedouin tribes, before government forces intervened – nominally to restore order – but ultimately sided with the Bedouins against the Druze.
The fighting killed hundreds over four days, with allegations that government-affiliated fighters executed Druze civilians and looted and burned homes.
Israel responded by launching dozens of airstrikes on government convoys and targeting the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters in central Damascus – a major escalation of its involvement.
The Druze form a substantial community in Israel, where they are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the Israeli military.
After the cease-fire and withdrawal of government forces, clashes once again flared between Druze and Bedouin groups in parts of Suwayda province.
State media reported that Druze forces carried out revenge attacks against Bedouin communities, leading to a wave of displacement.
The governor of neighboring Daraa province said in a statement that more than 1,000 families had been displaced to the area from Suwayda as a result of "attacks on Bedouin tribes by outlaw groups."
Meanwhile, Bedouin fighters arrived Friday from other areas of Syria to join the fight.
On the outskirts of Suwayda, groups of them gathered in front of buildings that had been set ablaze. An armed man who gave only the name Abu Mariam ("father of Mariam") said he had come from the eastern province of Deir el-Zour to "support the oppressed."
"We will not return to our homes until we crush al-Hijri and his ilk," he said, referring to Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, a prominent Druze leader opposed to the government in Damascus. "We have nothing to do with civilians and innocent people as long as they stay in their homes."
The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam.
More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the rest live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed in 1981.
While predominantly Druze, Suwayda is also home to Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes that have periodically clashed with the Druze over the years.
The latest escalation began when members of a Bedouin tribe in Suwayda set up a checkpoint and attacked and robbed a Druze man, triggering tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings.
Ahmed Aba Zeid, a Syrian researcher who has studied armed groups in southern Syria, said there is "no specific reason" for the historic tensions between the groups.
"All of Syria is full of social problems that have no reason," he said.
In this case, however, "the state exploited the latest problem to try to change the situation in Suwayda, and this only increased the scope of it," he said.
