TUNIS, August 3. /TASS/. Syria’s authorities have decided to close the Busra al-Sham humanitarian corridor to the Sweida governorate in the south of the country amid renewed clashes there, the al-Ekhbariya television channel reported, citing a source in the interior ministry of the Syrian transitional government.
According to the source, the corridor will stay closed "until security in the area is ensured" following the ceasefire violation by "illegal groups."
Fierce clashes flared up again west of the city of Sweida, the administrative center of the governorate of the same name, on Sunday. According to the Sham TV channel, shootouts between Druze self-defense units and Arab tribal militias who are supported by the transitional government’s security forces were reported from the al-Taal neighborhood.
The situation along the engagement line escalated after Druze units attacked positions of government forces near the Tel Hadid neighborhood. According to the Al Jazeera television channel, five Syrian law enforcement officers were killed.
The situation in Syria aggravated on July 13 when clashes between Arab tribal militias and Druze self-defense groups broke out in the heavily Druze-populated Sweida governorate. On July 15, the Syrian army entered the governorate’s administrative center, the city of Sweida, and launched a mop-up operation to restore order. Shortly after, Israel began delivering airstrikes on Syrian army convoys, claiming that the operation was geared to protect the Druze population. On July 19, Syria’s interom president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, declared a ceasefire in the Sweida governorate in accordance with the internationally-mediated peace settlement plan.
The Druze are a tight-knit ethnoreligious Arabic-speaking group living mainly in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan who adhere to a specific faith that split from Shiite Islam in the Middle Ages. Israeli Druzes live in Galilee in the north of the country and serve in the Israeli army and police along with Jews. However, after Israel gained control over the Golan Heights in the Six-Day War in 1967, most of the Druzes living there have preserved their Syrian citizenship. Syria’s Druze population numbers around 700,000, being the third biggest ethnoreligious minority after the Kurds and Alawites.