Government forces and allied militias began withdrawing from the mostly Druze city of Sweida in southern Syria on Thursday. It comes after Israeli strikes to defend the sect and US demands on Damascus to pull out.

The attack by Israel came amid continuing unrest in the city of Suwayda, where local Sunni Bedouin tribes have been engaged in fierce clashes in recent days with fighters from Syria’s Druze minority, whom Israel views as a potential ally in Syria and claims to be intervening to protect.

Israel threatened to escalate attacks on Syrian government forces unless they withdrew from Sweida, a southern province dominated by the country’s Druse minority.