BEIRUT, July 13. /TASS/. At least 13 people were killed and over 40 injured during armed clashes that broke out in the Syrian province of Al-Suwayda between Arab tribal militias and the self-defense forces of the Druze highlanders, the Elnashra news portal said. Earlier, 7 people were reported dead, including two children, and 32 injured.
The clashes began in the afternoon after a militia group fired at a Druze checkpoint set up in the village of Al-Makous. Fighters of the local self-defense forces returned fire on the attackers. The shootings followed in the neighboring districts of Jarin, Lubbayn and Al-Teiri. Traffic on the Al-Suwayda-Qanawat highway was blocked.
According to the portal, the Syrian authorities have sent special Interior Ministry forces tasked with stabilizing the situation to the south of the country. The governor of the Al-Suwayda province Mustafa al-Bakour called on the conflicting parties "to exercise restraint and seek solutions through dialogue."
Earlier, the sheikhs of the Druze community condemned the attacks that led to the deaths of two children and demanded "a ceasefire for the sake of preserving civil peace." In a statement broadcast by Al Mayadeen TV channel, they said that the government "must stop the attacks of armed gangs and ensure security on the Damascus-Al-Suwayda highway."
The Druze are an Arabic-speaking ethnic and religious group whose representatives live in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. There are 700,000 Druze in Syria, the third largest religious and ethnic minority after the Kurds and Alawites.