(Adnkronos) – Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa accuses Israel of having triggered “significant complications of the situation that led to the level of a large-scale escalation. Only thanks to the effective intervention of American, Arab and Turkish mediation was the region saved from an unknown fate”. “We are not among those who fear war. We have spent our lives facing challenges and defending our people, but we have put the interests of Syrians before chaos and destruction,” he stressed, specifying that Israel “launched large-scale raids against government and civilian sites”.
The overall death toll from the clashes that broke out in Sweida, initially between the local Druze community, which is the majority in this southern Syrian town, and Bedouin groups, later also due to the intervention of the Damascus military forces and IDF raids, is 350 dead, as reported by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Among the victims, the Observatory specifies, are 79 Druze fighters, 55 civilians, 27 of whom “in summary executions by the forces of the Damascus Ministries of Defense and Interior”, 189 members of the security forces, 19 Bedouins and the journalist Hassan al-Zaabi.
In a televised speech, his first intervention since the beginning of the heavy IDF raids on Damascus, the Syrian leader, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had done the day before, assured that protecting the Druze community and its rights “is our priority”. “We reject any attempt to drag you into the hands of outside parties,” he added, addressing the Druze directly.
