Reinforcements from clans around Syria gathered in villages around Sweida on Friday. A correspondent for the news agency AFP testifies to burned-down houses and shops in villages around Sweida.
Anas al-Enad, a clan leader from the city of Hama, says that he and his men have traveled to the village of Walgha, south of Sweida, to "the Bedouins asked for our help and we came here to help them".
Late in the evening, reports also came of clashes in Sweida itself between around 200 clan members and armed Druze.
The UN's international organization for migration, IOM, states that nearly 80,000 people have fled the sectarian violence in southern Syria in the past week and that the water and electricity supply as well as telecommunications in Sweida have "collapsed".
Around 600 dead
The clashes between Druze and Bedouins broke out in Sweida on Sunday, which led to Syrian government forces being deployed in an attempt to curb the violence. They were withdrawn on Wednesday evening on the orders of Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa after an agreement that is said to have been mediated by the USA.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), around 600 people have been killed since Sunday. The UN has called for an end to the violence and demanded an independent investigation.
The Syrian government's involvement in Sweida led to Israel carrying out air strikes on Wednesday against, among other things, Syria's Ministry of Defense in Damascus, with the motivation that they want to defend the Druze and reduce the presence of Syrian government forces in southwestern Syria.
SOHR stated on Friday that "the deployment of clan warriors to the province of Sweida has been arranged by government forces since government forces cannot be sent to Sweida according to the terms of the security agreement with Israel".
Turkey warns
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who supports the Syrian interim government, spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday about the situation in Syria.
He says that the withdrawal of the Syrian government forces "constitutes a threat to the entire region" and that it is essential that Israel does not violate Syria's sovereignty, according to the president's office.
Putin, on his part, expresses "strong concern" over the recent clashes in Syria and emphasizes the importance of "a rapid stabilization of the situation through dialogue", according to the Kremlin.
