Middle East Correspondent
BBCThe Bedouin fighters stationed outside the southern Syrian city of Suveda have told the BBC that they would inspect a ceasefire with the drews community there, but have not refused to resume hostility.
Bedouin fighters have retreated in villages around the city to the province of the province, a week after a week’s deadly communal clashes between the dreos, Bedouins and government forces, in which Israel has carried out airstrikes in support of the Drews.
On Sunday, a UK -based surveillance group said that the region had “alert quiet” – but later said that tribal fighters attacked the villages.
From the city of Al -Mazara – until last week a draus town was taken by Bedouin and now under the Syrian government’s control – smoke could be seen in the fields that rose from Suveda city.
A mound of dirt across the road at a nearby post. Dozens of government security personnel stood with it, all heavy armed and Bedouin were preventing them from entering the city again.
Hundreds of Bedouin fighters, several firing guns in the air, crowded on the road.
They want the release of the injured unemployed people still in Suveda city, which they refer to as hostages. Otherwise, they say, they will force their own way from the outpost and go back to the city.
A tribal elder told the BBC, “We have done what the government has ordered us and we are committed to the agreement, and the government words and we are back, Suveda is 35 km from here.”
“Currently our hostages and injured are refusing to give us to someone … if they are not committed to the agreement we are going to enter again, even if Suveda will become our cemetery.”
After the kidnapping of a drew merchant on the road to the capital Damascus, there was a long -standing tension in the deadly communal clashes between the Drews and the Bedouin tribes.
The interim President Ahmed al-Shara’s government replied by deploying forces in the city. Suveda Drews Resident Told the BBC that he saw “barbaric acts” As gunmen – government forces and foreign fighters attacked people. Israel targeted these forces, saying that they were working to protect the draus.
Government forces withdrew and drew and Bedouin fighters later clashed. Both Drews and Bedouin fighters have been accused of atrocities in the last seven days, as well as members of security forces and individuals affiliated to the interim government.
On Saturday, Al-Shara announced a ceasefire and sent Suveda to security forces to end the fight.
Local druz fighters are once again under the control of the city. But more than 1,120 people have been killed, the UK -based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (Sohr) said.
The Monitor said the dead included 427 druzed fighters and 298 drew citizens, of which 194 were “briefly executed by the defense and internal ministry personnel”, the monitor said.
Meanwhile, 354 government security personnel and 21 Sunni Bedouin were also killed, three of them said that it was “briefly executed by Drews fighters”. Another 15 government soldiers were killed in Israeli attacks, said.
The United Nations Migration Agency said on Sunday that at least 128,000 people have been displaced by violence. The city of Suweida lacks a serious medical supply, sohr said.
A first human convoy of Syrian Red Crescent has allegedly reached the city. Israel’s public broadcaster reported that Israel had sent medical assistance to the draus.
US State Secretary Marco Rubio has demanded that the government “convicts the guilty of atrocities, including those in their own ranks, to protect the possibility of united and peaceful Syria.
In the south-west of Suveda, in Maiarbah, the Bedouin refugee used to be a school. The village still bore stains for years of civil war, in which buildings are lying in ruins and scattered with bullet holes.
At the aid distribution centers, elderly Badouin women collected water from a tank behind the truck. Most people were women and children.
Asked if he felt that Bedouin and Drews could live together, a woman displaced from Suveda City said it would depend on the government in Damascus.
“They can live together if the government takes charge and rule, and if the government provides peace and security,” he said.
In the absence of the Government Authority, she said that she believes that Bedouin cannot rely.
“They are traitors, without peace and security we cannot live with them,” he said.
Additional Reporting by Jack Burges
