Smoke rose from burning houses in south Syria's Sweida on Saturday and an Arab tribal fighter vowed to "slaughter" residents as deadly clashes with Druze fighters persisted.

The Syrian Islamist-led government announced a ceasefire in Sweida following deadly factional violence. Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa praised international mediation while criticizing Israeli airstrikes.

BEIRUT (Reuters) -One elderly man had been shot in the head in his living room. Another in his bedroom. The body of a woman lay in the street. After days of bloodshed in Syria's Druze city of Sweida,

The conflict drew airstrikes against Syrian forces by neighboring Israel in defense of the Druze minority before most of the fighting was halted by a truce announced Wednesday.

The UN Human Rights Office in Geneva reported on Friday that fresh clashes had broken out in the Syrian province of Sweida, and that it had received "credible" reports of human rights violations. Some groups were deliberately trying to incite further violence with disinformation,

Clashes flared up again Friday between Druze militiamen and Sunni Bedouin tribes around Sweida in southern Syria. Footage from the Al-Arabiya network showed fires burning on the roadside and a heavy presence of Syrian security forces and other armed men.

Syrian government forces had largely pulled out of the Druze-majority southern province of Sweida after days of clashes with militias linked to the Druze religious minority that threatened to unravel the country’s fragile post-war transition.

Bloodshed in Sweida left at least 321 people dead, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said on Friday, in a new toll.

In the last barely-functional hospital in Sweida, bodies are overflowing from the morgue, staff said, amid violence that has wracked the Druze-majority southern Syrian city for nearly a week."There's no more space in the morgue,