(15 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++CLIENTS PLEASE NOTE THE EDIT CONTAINS SHOTS OF DEAD AND INJURED++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Al-Mazraa, Syria – 15 July 2025
1. Smoke billowing up from a house set on fire
2. Various of Syrian forces military vehicles
3. Ambulance carrying wounded
4. Ambulance arriving at the makeshift hospital
5. Wounded being carried on stretcher
6. Wounded feeling pain on stretcher
7. Close of hands with IV drip
8. Wounded military personnel with bandages
9. Paramedics and people moving dead body on stretcher ++GRAPHIC++
10. Wounded man on stretcher
11. Close of bandages and IV drip
12. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Manhal Yasser Al- Gor, Syrian interior ministry security personnel:
“We were entering Sweida to secure the civilians and prevent looting. I was on an armored personnel carrier when the Israeli drone hit us. There are a lot of casualties, many young men were martyred.”
13. Military personnel moving dead body covered with blanket
14. Wounded man with IV walking with the help of friends
STORYLINE:
Dozens of wounded people and dead bodies arrived at a hospital in Sweida province, Syria Tuesday following days of clashes between local militias and clans, government forces, and an Israeli strike.
Israel’s army said Monday it struck military tanks in southern Syria, where government forces and Bedouin tribes clashed with Druze militias in the latest escalation in the Middle East country struggling for stability after a 13-year civil war.
Government security forces that were sent to restore order Monday also clashed with local armed groups.
Syria’s Interior Ministry has said more than 30 people have died and nearly 100 others have been injured. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, reported at least 99 dead, including two children, two women and 14 members of the security forces.
The clashes in Syria initially broke out between armed groups from the Druze and Sunni Bedouin clans, the observatory said, with some members of the government security forces “actively participating” in support of the Bedouins.
Syrian Interior Ministry spokesperson Noureddine al-Baba said government forces entered Sweida in the early morning to restore order.
“Some clashes occurred with outlawed armed groups, but our forces are doing their best to prevent any civilian casualties,” he told the state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV.
The Interior Ministry described the situation as a dangerous escalation that “comes in the absence of the relevant official institutions, which has led to an exacerbation of the state of chaos, the deterioration of the security situation, and the inability of the local community to contain the situation.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the Israeli military “attacked targets in Syria as a message and a clear warning to the Syrian regime — we will not allow harm to the Druze in Syria.”
In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces.
While many Druze in Syria have said they do not want Israel to intervene on their behalf, factions from the Druze minority have also been suspicious of the new authorities in Damascus after former President Bashar Assad fled the country in December during a rebel offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgent groups.
AP video shot by Ghaith Alsayed and Omar Albam
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