Syrian government begins evacuating Bedouin families from Sweida in bid to uphold truce

The Syrian government has started evacuating Bedouin families trapped inside the majority-Druze city of Sweida, where Druze militiamen and Bedouin fighters have clashed for over a week, killing hundreds and threatening to unravel the country’s fragile postwar transition.

Buses filled with Bedouin families are accompanied by Syrian Arab Red Crescent vehicles and ambulances. Some families leave on trucks with their belongings.

Syrian authorities give no further details about the evacuation and how it ties into the broader agreement, following failed talks for a hostage swap deal Saturday.

However, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor says that as part of the agreement, the Bedouin fighters will have to release Druze women they were holding captive, and leave the province.

The evacuation comes a day after Syrian state media reported that the government had coordinated with some officials in Sweida to bring in buses to evacuate some 1,500 Bedouins from the city.

Syrian Interior Minister Ahmad al-Dalati told state broacaster SANA that the initiative would also allow displaced civilians from Sweida to return, as the fighting has largely stopped and efforts for a complete ceasefire are ongoing.

“We have imposed a security cordon in the vicinity of Sweida to keep it secure and to stop the fighting there,” al-Dalati told SANA. “This will preserve the path that will lead to reconciliation and stability in the province.”

The clashes in Sweida have led to a series of targeted sectarian attacks against the Druze community, followed by revenge attacks against the Bedouins. The UN International Organization for Migration says some 128,571 people were displaced in the hostilities that started with a series of tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks a week ago.

Amid the violence, Israel launched dozens of airstrikes in the Druze-majority Sweida province, vowing to protect the minority and targeting government forces who had effectively sided with the Bedouins. Hundreds of Israeli Druze also rushed across the border to Syria to fight alongside the Syrian Druze, leading Israeli security forces to pursue them in a bid to bring them back.