(20 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++PLEASE NOTE AUDIO CONTAINS INFLAMMATORY LANGUAGE++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Al Mazraa, Sweida Province, Syria – 19 July 2025
1. Driving shot of smoke rising from a farm
2. Charred truck and building
3. Charred building
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Damascus, Syria – 19 July 2025
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hamza Al-Mostafa, Syrian Minister of Information: ++PARTIALLY OVERLAID WITH SHOTS 1-3++
"To prevent the situation from sliding into a state of permanent conflict, a ceasefire was announced, which includes understandings agreed upon by the mediators and the Syrian state to ensure the disengagement of current clashes, prevent their recurrence in the future, and give political solutions a chance under the umbrella of the state."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Al Mazraa, Sweida Province, Syria – 19 July 2025
5. Ambulance driving by
6. Pickup truck loaded with fighters
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammed Abu Addi, Bedouin fighter: ++PARTIALLY OVERLAID WITH SHOTS 6 & 8++
“Anyone who supports the Syrian state is our brother, our target is Al-Hijri (supporters of prominent Druze leader Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri), who killed the children, women, elderly people, the Bedouin and burned them. The prisoner of war should not be killed; he killed the POWs. We responded to the call from Al-Jazira (canton) from the Al-Mowali tribe and came to Sweida.”
8. Fighters on motorcycles, charred cars in foreground
STORYLINE:
Syria’s Minister of Information said Saturday that the first phase of a ceasefire between Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze-linked militias in Sweida will be in effect for the next 48 hours.
Hamza Al-Mostafa said the first phase involves deploying internal security forces to key areas to prevent clashes.
Subsequent phases will open humanitarian crossings and gradually restore state institutions and security to ensure a return to normalcy, al-Mostafa said.
Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has urged Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes to “fully commit” to the truce, following the clashes that left hundreds dead and threatened to unravel the country’s postwar transition.
Government forces that were initially sent to restore order but effectively sided with the Bedouins against the Druze were redeployed to halt renewed fighting that erupted Thursday in the southern province of Sweida.
The violence also drew airstrikes against Syrian forces by neighboring Israel before a truce was reached.
Israel had launched dozens of airstrikes on convoys of government fighters and even struck the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters in central Damascus, saying it was in support of the Druze, who form a substantial community in Israel and are seen as a loyal minority, often serving in the Israeli military.
Reports had surfaced of Syrian government-affiliated fighters executing Druze civilians and looting and burning homes over the four-day violence.
Meanwhile, prominent Druze leader Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri said that the agreement brokered under the sponsorship of guarantor states contained several measures aimed at de-escalating tensions.
They include the deployment of checkpoints outside the province’s administrative borders to contain clashes and prevent infiltration, a 48-hour ban on entry by any party into border villages, and safe, guaranteed passage for remaining members of the Bedouin tribes still inside the province.
Al-Hijri opposes the current government and has distanced himself from the two ceasefires announced on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Druze are a minority in Syria, but form the majority in Sweida province.
AP video by Abdelrahman Shaheen
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