Hello and a warm welcome to Newsout from the BBC World Service.

We're coming to you live from London. I'm Sean Lay.

There are checkpoints around the city of Sweda in southern Syria as the army attempts to quell an outbreak of intracommunal violence.

The government says it will open humanitarian corridors for those who want to leave.

The violence began last Sunday between Bedouin and the Druze, who, whilst a minority in the country as a whole,

are the majority in Sweda province, which is close to the border of Jordan and Israel.

Over subsequent days, Bedouin tribes people from other areas converged on Sweda.

Druze reported mass killings and, perhaps worse than Bedouin attacks,

claimed supporters that the Islamist-led government were also attacking them.

The government, led by interim President Ahmed al-Shara,

grew out of an armed faction once associated with Al-Qaeda.

Since taking power after the collapse of the half-century-long rule by the Assad family,

Mr Al-Shara has pledged to protect minorities. Any suggestion that his supporters are targeting

Syrians who are Druze, undermines trust in that pledge. Even before this week's bloodshed,

estimated to have killed around 900 people, the Druze had been worried because of what happened

to another group earlier in the year. In March, more than a thousand Aloitites, the community

from which the Assad family drew much of its support, were massacred. Social media posting suggests

this week's violence has been equally brutal. We've been hearing from a Syrian woman caught up in

it. She's Druze and lived with her family in a village in the province of Swayda.

In a series of messages sent her us via WhatsApp,

she told us about the terrifying events that sent her into hiding.

Her words have been translated and spoken by one of our production team.

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