CAIRO, July 20. /TASS/. Armed clashes in the Syrian city of Sweida have ceased completely, Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman Nour Eddin Al-Baba said.
"At present, no members of illegal armed groups are present in Sweida. Clashes have stopped in the entire city," he was quoted as saying by the SANA news agency.
In this regard, the interim government’s health ministry announced that it was "immediately sending 20 ambulance vehicles with all the necessary equipment and medicines to Sweida."
"The decision was made in the context of the opening of humanitarian corridors to the province. Doctors will depart their within the next few hours," the ministry said in a statement, posted on Telegram.
On Saturday, Syrian Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced an immediate ceasefire in the Sweida province to end clashes between militias and Druze self-defense forces. The ceasefire was announced in accordance with the reconciliation plan, drafted with the help of international mediators.
Tensions in southern Syria escalated on July 13, with clashes erupting between Arab tribal militias and Druze self-defense forces. On July 15, Syrian forces entered the city of Sweida and began mopping it up. Shortly after, Israel started striking Syrian military convoys, arguing that it was seeking to protect the Druze population of the province. On July 16, the Israeli Air Force struck some strategic targets in Damascus.
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.