SWEIDA, Syria: Two civilians were killed near the Druze-majority city of Sweida in southern Syria on Sunday, two local security sources told AFP, during suspected clashes between local armed groups and government forces.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported the same death toll, adding that government forces and armed groups from the Druze minority group had been exchanging fire since Saturday night.
Tensions have been high in Sweida province since clashes between Druze and government-aligned forces last year led to some of the worst communal violence since the fall of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar Assad in 2024.
A Druze security source told AFP on condition of anonymity that a shell launched from a government-controlled area “targeted the outskirts of the city of Sweida, striking a tractor and killing two people on board, the driver and a woman who was with him.”
Sweida city and other parts of the surrounding Druze-majority province are run by armed groups and are the last major areas outside the grasp of Syria’s new Islamist authorities, who have been trying to unite the country after toppling Assad.
