Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority on Thursday after U.S. intervention to help achieve a truce in fighting between government forces and Druze fighters.

About 500 people killed in clashes, according to UK war monitor; AFP photographer counts 15 bodies strewn in city center amid looted shops and burned cars and houses

Residents emerged from their homes to scenes of devastation on Thursday after government forces withdrew from the Syrian Druze-majority city of Sweida, leaving behind looted shops, burned homes and

Syrian troops pulled out of the Druze heartland province of Sweida Thursday on orders from the Islamist-led government, leaving bodies strewn on the street, AFP journalists reported from the provincia

Vantage with Palki Sharma | N18G Syria’s war may have faded from headlines, but in Sweida, violence has erupted once again — this time killing over 100, mostly from the Druze community. A tribal feud between Druze and Bedouins spiralled into a deadly confrontation,

Shops were looted, homes burned and bodies littered the streets of the city. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said the clashes started after members of a Bedouin tribe in Sweida province set up a checkpoint where they attacked and robbed a Druze man, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings between the tribes and Druze armed groups.

Israeli officials react to the ongoing violence in Syria's Sweida between regime forces and the local Druze community. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israeli Druze citizens not to cross the border amid ongoing clashes in Sweida in southern Syria on Wednesday afternoon.