Israel strikes military tanks in Syria as Syrian forces clash with Druze militia

Israel's army on Monday said it has struck military tanks in southern Syria as Syrian government forces and Bedouin tribes clashed with Druze militia there.

Dozens of people have been killed in the fighting between local militia units and clans in Syria's Sweida province. Government security forces that were sent to restore order on Monday also clashed with local armed groups.

Syria's interior ministry has said more than 30 people died and nearly 100 others were injured in that fighting. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, reported at least 50 dead including two children and six members of the security forces.

Israel has previously threatened to intervene in Syria in defence of the Druze religious minority. Over half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981.

In Israel, Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces.

Israel has been suspicious of Syria's new leaders since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in December, saying it does not want Islamist militants near its borders.

Israeli forces earlier seized a UN-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with Golan Heights and have launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria.

Clashes initially broke out between armed groups from the Druze and Sunni Bedouin clans, the observatory said, with some members of the government security forces “actively participating” in support of the Bedouins.

Interior ministry spokesperson Noureddine al-Baba told state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV that government forces entered Sweida in the early morning to restore order.

“Some clashes occurred with outlawed armed groups, but our forces are doing their best to prevent any civilian casualties,” he said.

The observatory said the clashes started after a series of kidnappings between both groups, which began when members of a Bedouin tribe in the area set up a checkpoint where they attacked and robbed a young Druze man.

Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the observatory, said the conflict started with the kidnapping and robbery of a Druze vegetable seller, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings.

Syria's defence and interior ministries were deploying personnel to the area to attempt to restore order.

The interior ministry described the situation as a dangerous escalation that “comes in the absence of the relevant official institutions, which has led to an exacerbation of the state of chaos, the deterioration of the security situation, and the inability of the local community to contain the situation despite repeated calls for calm”.

Factions from the Druze minority have been suspicious of the new authorities in Damascus after Assad fled the country during a rebel offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgent groups. Earlier this year, Druze groups in Sweida clashed with security forces from the new government.

The Druze religious sect is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. In Syria, they largely live in the southern Sweida province and some suburbs of Damascus, mainly in Jaramana and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya to the south.

The Druze developed their own militias during the country's nearly 14-year civil war. Since Assad's fall, different Druze factions have been at odds over whether to integrate with the new government and armed forces.