JAKARTA - The Syrian Interior Ministry said more than 30 people were killed and 100 others injured in armed clashes in the Syrian city of Sweida, the majority of whose population is Druze.
Violence erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the kidnapping of a trader Druze on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida, witnesses said.
This is the first time a sectarian battle has erupted within the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital, most of whose population is Druze.
Last April clashes broke out between Sunni fighters and armed Druze residents in Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, which later spread to other districts near the provincial capital.
"This violent cycle has exploded in a terrible way and if it doesn't end, we will go to bloodshed," said Rayan Marouf, a Sweida-based Druze researcher and manages the Suwayda24 website.
Clashes involving Bedouin fighters and the Druze militia are centered in the Maqwas neighborhood in eastern Sweida, which is inhabited by the Bedouin, and surrounded by armed Druze groups and later captured.
The Syrian Interior Ministry said its forces would start direct interventions in Sweida to resolve the conflict, calling on local parties in the city of Druze to cooperate with security forces.
The armed Bedouin also launched attacks on Druze villages on the western and northern suburbs of the city, residents said.
Medical sources told Reuters 15 bodies had been taken to the morgue at the Sweida government hospital. About 50 people were injured, some of whom were taken to Deraa City for medical treatment.
The violence marks the latest round of sectarian bloodshed in Syria, where fears among minority groups have escalated since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al-Assad in December, and formed their own government and security forces.
These concerns escalated after the killings of hundreds of Alawi residents in March, which appeared to be retaliation for previous attacks carried out by loyalists of Assad.
It was the deadliest sectarian turmoil in recent years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended last December with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was ousted by rebel forces.
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