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More than 30 people were killed and nearly 100 others injured during armed clashes between Druze fighters and Bedouin tribal fighters in Syria's southern Sweida governorate late Sunday, the Interior Ministry announced Monday.
The incident marked the first deadly outbreak in the region since sectarian fighting earlier in 2025.
The Syrian ministry described the events as "bloody developments" and said the fighting erupted in the Al-Maqous neighborhood, involving "local armed groups and tribes."
Security forces deployed to the area also suffered casualties while attempting to restore order, according to local media.
"The absence of state institutions, particularly military and security ones, is a primary reason for the ongoing tensions in Sweida and its countryside," Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
"There is no solution to this except by imposing security and activating the role of institutions to ensure civil peace and the return of life to its normal state in all its details," he added.
"The Ministry of Interior confirms that units of its forces, in coordination with the Ministry of Defense, will intervene directly in the region to resolve the conflict, stop clashes, impose security, prosecute those responsible for the events, and refer them to the competent judiciary," the ministry said in a statement.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said late Sunday that six Druze and two Bedouin were killed in the violence, which erupted in the Maqus neighborhood on the eastern edge of Sweida.
The city is the heartland of Syria’s Druze community.
Local outlet Sweida 24, citing medical sources, gave a preliminary death toll of seven, including a child, and reported that at least 32 others were wounded in the clashes, which involved heavy gunfire and shelling.
The fighting forced the closure of the main highway linking Damascus and Sweida.
A Syrian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on media engagement, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that security forces were being deployed to de-escalate the situation.
Sweida Governor Mustapha al-Bakur issued a statement urging calm, calling on residents to “exercise self-restraint and respond to national calls for reform.”
Syria’s Druze population numbers around 700,000, with the largest concentration in and around Sweida.
Tensions between Druze and Bedouin communities in the province have flared sporadically in recent years, often over land disputes, criminal activity, or competition for influence.
Violence erupted in April and May between Druze fighters and the country’s new extremist-led security authorities following the December 2024 overthrow of longtime regime leader Bashar al-Assad.
Those clashes left dozens dead and prompted religious leaders and local figures to broker agreements to ease tensions and integrate Druze factions into the transitional administration.
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