Bedouin tribal fighters withdraw from Syria's Sweida after ceasefire efforts: authorities

Damascus [Syria], July 20: Syria's interior authorities said Saturday night that through their extensive efforts to implement a newly-reached ceasefire agreement, Bedouin tribal fighters have fully withdrawn from the southern Syrian city of Sweida.
"After intensive efforts ... and following the deployment of internal security forces in northern and western Sweida, all tribal fighters have been evacuated from the city and the clashes have ceased inside its neighborhoods," interior authorities spokesperson Noureddin al-Baba said in a televised statement.
Earlier on Saturday, a three-phase ceasefire agreement, brokered by the United States, Türkiye, Jordan, and other regional actors to halt the violence in Sweida that has claimed at least 940 lives since July 13, took effect.
Hours later, fierce fighting erupted in Sweida between Druze armed groups and Bedouin tribal fighters.
According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Druze fighters launched a counteroffensive late Saturday, reclaiming Sweida city after hours of clashes.
Tribal forces, withdrawing from the city, responded with mortar attacks that caused material damage and possible civilian injuries, said the SOHR.
In a statement released earlier Saturday evening, Syria's Druze spiritual leadership accused Bedouin tribal militias of violating the newly reached ceasefire in southern Sweida province and committing "crimes that shame all humanity."
The statement said international guarantors should enforce the ceasefire and stop "a campaign of terror and collective punishment" against Sweida's residents.
The SOHR said Sweida is facing a looming humanitarian catastrophe, citing widespread infrastructure damage, medical supply shortages, and a complete collapse of the main hospital.
According to Syria's information chief Hamzah Mustafa, the ceasefire agreement involves deploying the country's Internal Security Forces to separate warring factions and halt hostilities in the first phase, opening humanitarian corridors between Sweida and southern Daraa province in the second, and restoring state institutions and ensuring the gradual return of law enforcement in the third.
"This is the path Sweida needs today after months of tension and exhaustion," Mustafa said in a press conference, "The state remains committed to protecting all Syrians and restoring national unity."
Noting that 21 shelters have been established in Daraa, with 20 more underway, Syria's emergency management chief Raed al-Saleh also demanded the release of kidnapped civil defense official Hamzah al-Amarin to resume humanitarian operations.
The nearly week-long fierce clashes in Sweida, which prompted fears of a broader regional escalation, started after armed members of a Bedouin tribe in the countryside of Sweida, a predominantly Druze area, reportedly assaulted and robbed a young Druze man near the town of al-Masmiyah, along the Damascus-Sweida highway.
The brutal attack sparked retaliatory kidnappings, spiraling into full-scale clashes between local Druze fighters, government troops, and Bedouin militias.
Source: Xinhua News Agency