The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has said the death toll from violence in the country’s south had topped 1,000. The war monitor said those killed since last Sunday included 336 Druze fighters and 298 civilians from the religious minority group, 194 of whom were “summarily executed by defense and interior ministry personnel.”

Syrian government forces have started withdrawing from the southern province of Sweida following days of vicious clashes with militias from the Druze minority.

Syrian interior ministry forces began deploying in Sweida on Saturday under a US-brokered deal intended to avert further Israeli military intervention in the Druze-majority province.Israel had bombed defence ministry forces in both Sweida and Damascus earlier this week to force their withdrawal after they were accused of summary executions and other abuses against Druze civilians during their brief deployment in the southern province.

Druze fighters pushed out rival armed factions from Syria's city of Sweida on Saturday, a monitor said, after a US-brokered ceasefire deal with Israel.

Sweida, a Syrian city, experiences a 'tense calm' after a temporary withdrawal of Bedouin fighters. Despite the ceasefire, residents face ongoing struggles with shortages of water and electricity. Previous clashes between Bedouin and Druze fighters resulted in casualties,

BEIRUT (Reuters) -One elderly man had been shot in the head in his living room. Another in his bedroom. The body of a woman lay in the street. After days of bloodshed in Syria's Druze city of Sweida,

Syrian government forces had largely pulled out of the Druze-majority southern province of Sweida after days of clashes with militias linked to the Druze religious minority that threatened to unravel the country’s fragile post-war transition.