Athens News - Clashes, homes torched in south Syria's Sweida despite ceasefire

Just hours earlier, Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa had announced an immediate ceasefire, but Bedouins and tribal fighters who are allied with the Syrian authorities pushed on in the west of the Druze-majority city.

"Go forward, tribes!" said fighter Abu Jassem, addressing fellow combatants in the area, where the streets were largely deserted.

"We will slaughter them in their homes," he said, referring to the Druze.

The tribal fighters have converged on Sweida from other parts of Syria to support the Bedouins who have been clashing with Druze fighters since July 13.

The violence has killed at least 940 people, according to a monitor.

An AFP correspondent on Saturday saw dozens of torched homes and vehicles and armed men setting fire to shops after looting them.

Some fighters, their faces covered, opened fire in the streets with automatic weapons while others moved around on vehicles and motorbikes.

One fighter wore a black band around his head that bore the Islamic profession of faith.

Another was carrying scissors, after footage in recent days showed fighters cutting the moustaches of Druze elderly and clergy, a grave insult to members of the minority community.

The Druze, followers of an esoteric religion that split from Shiite Islam, are regarded at best with suspicion by more hard-line Sunni Islamists who count among the ranks of Syria's new authorities.

- 'Nothing left' -

In Sweida city, where around 150,000 people live, residents have been holed up in their homes without electricity and water.

Food supplies are scarce despite repeated appeals for humanitarian assistance, and communications have largely been cut off.

Near the city's main hospital, an AFP photographer said bloated bodies were being taken for burial in a nearby pit as the morgue was overflowing.

A doctor had told AFP that the facility had received more than 400 bodies.

Security forces on Saturday were deploying in the province with the stated aim of protecting civilians and ending the chaos.

Near a village north of Sweida, an AFP correspondent saw government forces deploying at a checkpoint and seeking in vain to prevent armed tribal fighters from advancing.

Interior ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba told AFP in the province's north that security forces were deploying "to protect public and private property and guarantee the security of civilians".

Government forces were to "supervise the withdrawal of the tribes that were in battle with outlaw groups," he added, referring to Druze fighters.

An AFP correspondent said some tribal fighters withdrew from the city on Saturday afternoon, and also reported armed men dragging bodies from a street.

According to the United Nations, the fighting has displaced at least 87,000 people.

One resident of the city who fled days earlier told AFP that "We have nothing left."

"Most of the people we know -- our relatives and friends -- are dead," said the resident, requesting anonymity due to the security situation.

"Sweida has been destroyed, and we are trying to keep our families away until this madness ends."

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H.Papavasiliou--AN-GR