Bedouin and tribal fighters are deployed while a car is on fire at the western entrance to the Druze bastion in Soueïda, in southern Syria, July 18, 2025 (AFP / Bakr Alkasem)
Clashes oppose tribal fighters on Friday evening to Druzes groups at the entrance to Soueida, in southern Syria where the fighting has already killed hundreds of dead and tens of thousands of displaced in recent days.
The Syrian presidency said Friday evening working on a “special force” in the area on Friday evening, from where it had withdrawn her soldiers the day before under pressure from Israel.
The UN called to arrest “bloodshed” after clashes in this Druze majority region which broke out on Sunday evening and left 638 dead according to a last assessment of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
“It is no longer a hospital, it is a common pit,” AFP Rouba, a member of the staff of the Government Hospital of Soueida, told AFP who does not want to give their family name.
The establishment, the only one still functional in this city, has welcomed “more than 400 bodies since Monday morning”, including “women, children and the elderly,” the doctor Omar Obeid told AFP.
These violence further weakens the power of the interim president, Ahmad al-Chareh, who overthrew, at the head of a coalition of Islamist rebel groups President Bashar al-Assad in December, in a country bruised by almost 14 years of civil war.
In a statement on Friday evening, the presidency urged “all the parties to show restraint and favor reason”, while claiming to work “to send a special force to end the clashes”.
– “Calls for help” –
The Syrian power, saying that he wanted to restore order, had already deployed his forces on Tuesday in Soueida, hitherto controlled by Druze fighters. The OSDH, Druzes witnesses and groups, however, accused Syrian forces of having fought alongside the Bedouins and of having committed abuses.
Government forces had withdrawn from the city Thursday, after threats and bombings of Israel who said he wanted to protect the Druze minority, Mr. Chareh affirming his desire to avoid an “open war” with Israel.
A man is treated in a hospital in Soueida, in southern Syria, on July 18, 2025, after clashes between tribal fighters and Druzes (AFP / Shadi al-Dubaisi)
A ceasefire was concluded between the Syrian parties but the presidency accused Druzes fighters on Thursday evening of having raped it.
Friday morning, fighters of Sunni Arab tribes, who flocked from different Syrian regions to lend a hand to the Bedouins, had massaged around Soueida, according to AFP correspondents on the spot.
And Friday evening some 200 of these fighters were seen by AFP exchanging automatic weapons fire at the western entrance to the city with the Druzes groups positioned inside.
The OSDH confirmed fighting in this sector, adding that “bombings aimed at city districts”.
Fighters of Bedouin tribes gather in the village of Al-Mazraa, in the governorate of Soueida, adans in southern Syria, against the backdrop of clashes with armed men Druze, July 18, 2025 (AFP / Bakr Alkasem)
A tribal chief, Anas al-Enad, told AFP correspondent near the Druze village of Walgha who came with his men from the Hama region (Center) “in response to calls for the help of the Bedouins”.
The AFP correspondent saw houses, shops and burned cars in Walgha, now under the control of tribal forces and Bedouins.
According to the OSDH, “tribal fighters are encouraged and supported by the Syrian authorities who can no longer deploy in Soueida because of the threats of Israel”.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, asked that “bloodshed” ceases, stressing that the protection of all people should be “absolute priority”.
“Independent, fast and transparent investigations must be carried out on all violations, and those responsible must be brought to account,,” he added in a statement.
Nearly 80,000 people have been moved due to violence, the International Organization for Migration (OIM) alarmed.
Fighters of Bedouin tribes gather in the village of Al-Mazraa, in the governorate of Soueida, adans in southern Syria, against the backdrop of clashes with armed men Druze, July 18, 2025 (AFP / Bakr Alkasem)
In the city itself, deprived of water and electricity and where the communications are cut, “the situation is catastrophic. There is even no more milk for infants,” the editor -in -chief of the local site Suwayda 24, Rayan Maarouf told AFP.
– “People lack everything” –
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was “deeply concerned about the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian situation” in the region.
“People are lacking everything. Hospitals find it increasingly difficult to treat the wounded and patients,” said Stephan Sakalian, head of the CICR delegation in Syria.
Wednesday, Israel had bombed several targets in the heart of Damascus including the army HQ, killing three people according to the authorities.
Armed Druzes are deployed in the village of Al-Dur, in southern Syria, after the withdrawal of government forces on July 17, 2025 (AFP / Omar Haj Kadour)
The United States, allies of Israel and posting its support for the new Syrian leader despite its jihadist past, said Thursday that they had supported the Israeli strikes in Syria.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed on Friday, during a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart, his “deep concern” in the face of violence in Syria. Recep Tayyip Erdogan saw there “a threat to the whole region”.
The fights had started on Sunday between Druzes groups and local Bedouin tribes, with tense relations for decades.
Present mainly in Soueida, the Druze community in Syria had some 700,000 people before the civil war. This esoteric minority from a branch of Islam is also located in Lebanon and Israel.
