Fresh clashes break out in Syria as government struggles : NPR

A Syrian security checkpoint is considered to be forces deployed in the village of Mazraa on the outskirts of the city of Sweida, in southern Syria.

Omar Sanadiki / AP

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Omar Sanadiki / AP

Beirut-New epidemics of violence overnight on Sunday rocked Syria with two distinct lightning points, tending a fragile ceasefire and questioning the ability of the transitional government to exercise its authority throughout the country.

In the North, the combatants affiliated with the government confronted the Kurdish forces which control a large part of the region, while in the southern province of Sweida, they clashed with armed groups of Druze.

Epidemics intervene at a time when Syria’s interim authorities are trying to maintain a tape-fire tense in the province of Sweida after clashes with Druze factions last month, and to implement an agreement with the Syrian Syrian forces led by the United States, which would reintegrate the large expanses of North East Syria.

The Syrian government under interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa has struggled to consolidate control since he directed a surprise insurrection that ousted former President Bashar Assad in December, ending the autocratic rule of the Assad family. Political opponents and ethnic and religious minorities are wary of de facto Islamist domination of Sharaa and cooperation with affiliated combatants who come from militant groups.

State of state television said that clashes between government forces and militias belonging to the Druze religious minority rocked the southern Sweida province on Saturday after Druze factions attacked Syrian security forces, killing at least one member. The Alikhbaria chain managed by the State quoted an anonymous security official who said that the ceasefire had been broken. The Ministry of Defense did not publish any official declaration.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Human Rights Observatory, a war instructor based in Britain, said that the member of the security forces killed, a Druze was killed and at least nine others were injured in the clashes that took place in the western part of Sweida province. The observatory said that the clashes had taken place in the strategic heights of Tal al-Hadeed which neglect the province of Daraa next to it.

Difficult conditions in Sweida

The state media claim that convoys of aid continue to enter the city of Sweida as part of a tense truce after more than a week of violent clashes in July between the Druze militias and the armed Brove clans supported by government forces. However, the humanitarian conditions remain disastrous and the residents of Sweida called for the opening of the city road, saying that the help that came is not enough.

The clashes that moved tens of thousands of people came after months of tensions between Damascus and Sweida. The fights have led to a series of targeted sectarian attacks against the Druze minority, which are now skeptical about peaceful coexistence. Druze militias retaliated against the Bedouin communities which lived largely in the western areas of the province of Sweida, moving a lot to neighboring Daraa.

Elsewhere, in the north of the province of Aleppo, combatants affiliated with the government clashed with the homeless. The Defense Ministry said three civilians and four soldiers were injured after the homeless man launched a rocket dam near the city of Manbij “irresponsible and for unknown reasons.”

SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami said that the group responded to bombing by “unruly factions” in government forces on Deir Haffar, an eastern city in the same province.

The eastern part of the province of Aleppo rides areas controlled by the government and the homeless. Although the two slowly try to implement a ceasefire and an agreement that would integrate the zones under Damascus, tensions remain.

“The attempts of the Ministry of Defense to distort the facts and to deceive public opinion do not contribute to security or to stability,” said Shami in an article on X, formerly Twitter.

Israeli forces make raids bordering the heights of Golan annexed

In the province of Quneitra, in the South, the Israeli army announced that it had carried out another ground operation in the region which borders the Golan Heights annexed Israeli. He declared that his troops questioned several suspects which they accuse of participation in arms trafficking in the village of Hader, and attacked four areas where they found tank weapons.

Since the ouster of Assad, Israel has carried out numerous strikes and military operations in southern Syria, affirming that its forces eliminate militant groups which, according to them, could harm the Israelis and residents of the Golan Heights.

Damascus criticized the military activity of Israel, and the two parties tried to reach a security arrangement by mediated talks by the United States. Syria has repeatedly said that it did not intend to take military measures against Israel.

These talks intensified after Israel supported the Druze in Sweida during the previous clashes. Israel struck military personnel near the southern city and notably launched an air strike targeting the seat of the Ministry of Defense in the heart of Damascus.