DAMASCUS: Two civilians were killed near the Druze-majority city of Sweida in southern Syria on Sunday, two local security sources said, 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 al-Assad in 2024.
A Druze security source said 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”.
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