DAMASCUS: Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority on Thursday after US intervention to help achieve a truce in fighting between government forces and Druze fighters.

Overnight, the government’s troops withdrew from the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, where scores of people have been killed in days of conflict pitting Druze fighters against government troops and Bedouin tribes.

But in a worrying development, a military commander for the Bedouin said their fighters had launched a new offensive in Sweida province against Druze fighters and that the truce only applied to government forces.

The Bedouins, a collection of farmers who have long-standing frictions with the Druze, were seeking to free detained colleagues, he told Reuters.

A round of fighting between the Bedouins and Druze earlier this week prompted the government to send troops to Sweida to quell the fighting, but the violence then grew until a ceasefire was declared. The violence has underlined the challenges that Sharaa faces in stabilizing Syria and exerting centralised rule, despite his warming ties with the United States and his administration’s evolving security contacts with Israel.

One local journalist said he had counted more than 60 bodies in the streets of Sweida in south Syria on Thursday morning. Ryan Marouf of Suwayda24 told Reuters he had found a family of 12 people killed in one house, including women and an elderly man.

On Wednesday, Israel launched airstrikes in Damascus, while also hitting government forces in the south, demanding they withdraw and saying Israel aimed to protect Syrian Druze – part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel.

Israel, which bombed Syria frequently under the rule of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, has struck the country repeatedly this year, saying it will not allow new rulers to deploy forces in areas of southern Syria near its border.

Addressing Syrians on Thursday, interim President Sharaa accused Israel of seeking to “dismantle the unity of our people”, saying it had “consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime”.

Sharaa, commander of an al Qaeda faction before cutting ties with the group in 2016, said protecting Druze citizens and their rights was “our priority” and rejected any attempt to drag them into the hands of an “external party”.

He also vowed to hold to account those who committed violations against “our Druze people”. Reuters