DAMASCUS: Syria announced that its army had begun to withdraw from violence-hit Sweida on Wednesday (Jul 16), following a wave of Israeli strikes on the capital and a United States call for

UN Secretary-General Guterres condemns Israeli airstrikes in Syria, ignoring the Syrian military's massacre of the Druze. Israeli Ambassador Danon fires back and accuses Guterres of "moral bankruptcy".

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced Wednesday a renewed ceasefire after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the country’s postwar political transition and have drawn intervention by Syria’s powerful neighbor, Israel.

Syria's Druze have reached a ceasefire agreement with the Syrian government in Sweida that will take immediate effect, Druze religious leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou said in a video broadcast by state media on Wednesday.

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.

Israel has struck military tanks in southern Syria, where government forces and Bedouin tribes clash with Druze militias.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The spiritual leader of Syria’s Druze community vowed on Wednesday to continue fighting Damascus forces in Suwayda province until the area is “entirely liberated,” just hours after Israeli warplanes struck government military targets in central

"Silence and standing idly by are no longer an option,” Druze leader Sheikh Mowafak Tarif wrote. Israel's Druze spiritual leadership called on its community to prepare to assist their Syrian counterparts “by all means necessary,