SAEDNEWS: At least 30 people were killed and about 100 wounded as sectarian clashes erupted in the southern Syrian city of Suwayda, the Syrian interior ministry said on Monday.
The fighting broke out after a series of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday along the highway connecting Damascus to Suwayda, according to witnesses.
This was the first time sectarian violence has erupted inside Suwayda city, the capital of the predominantly Druze province.
Clashes involving Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze militias were concentrated in the Maqwas neighborhood, which is home to Bedouin tribes.
Armed Druze groups surrounded the area and later seized it, residents said.
Armed Bedouin tribesmen also attacked Druze villages on the western and northern outskirts of Suwayda, residents reported.
“This cycle of violence has exploded in a terrifying way and if it doesn’t end we are heading toward a bloodbath,” said Rayan Marouf, a Druze researcher based in Suwayda who runs the Suwayda24 website.
A medical source said at least 15 bodies were taken to the morgue at Suwayda’s state hospital.
Dozens of wounded people were transferred to hospitals in Suwayda and the nearby city of Deraa.
The Syrian interior ministry announced that security forces would begin direct intervention in Suwayda to end the clashes and called on local groups to cooperate.
The violence was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where concerns among minorities have deepened since al-Qaeda-affiliate militants overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in December and installed their own administration.
Those fears escalated further after hundreds of Alawites were killed in March. Also sectarian clashes have intensified across Syria since Israeli forces launched repeated attacks on Syrian territory, deepening instability and fueling violence among rival communities.
