Syria: Renewed clashes between Bedouin tribesmen and Druze Community
Newshour
BBC
4.4 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 18 July 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Renewed clashes between Bedouin tribesmen and members of the minority Druze Community have erupted in the south of Syria. A war monitoring group says there's been fighting and shelling in neighbourhoods of the mainly Druze city of Suweida. We'll hear from Damascus and get a US view of Israel's policy.
Also, why President Trump and some of his most loyal supporters are at odds over the late, disgraced financier, Jeffrey Epstein.
And some virtuoso piano playing from a performer born with only one hand.
(Photo: Syria's interim president said government forces had expelled "outlaw groups" in Suweida. Credit: Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service, coming to you live from London. |
| 0:08.8 | I'm Julian Warwicko. |
| 0:10.3 | We begin in Syria, where long-running tensions between Druze and Bedouin tribes in the south of the country |
| 0:16.2 | erupted into deadly sectarian clashes on Sunday, and now nearly a week on, there's no sign of the violence ending. |
| 0:24.2 | Indeed, reports today are of more serious clashes, with reports of Bedouin tribes surrounding Sweda City. |
| 0:31.1 | And all this comes a day after government forces withdrew from the area. |
| 0:34.8 | The scale of the fighting is best illustrated by the numbers killed since Sunday. |
| 0:40.0 | At least 594 people, that's according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group. |
| 0:48.1 | In recent days, as the fighting spread to other parts of the southern province, |
| 0:52.1 | the government of interim president Ahmed al-Sherar, |
| 0:55.2 | who led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime by Islamist-led rebels in December, |
| 1:01.4 | announced that it would deploy the Interior and Defence Ministry's forces to restore stability. |
| 1:07.4 | That does not appear to have happened. |
| 1:09.0 | And the situation was complicated further |
| 1:11.5 | when the Israeli military launched air strikes in the area which they said |
| 1:15.2 | were intended to protect the Druze. |
| 1:18.5 | Lena Sinjab is the BBC's correspondent in the Syrian capital Damascus |
| 1:22.3 | and has been following the latest developments in Swayda. |
| 1:25.8 | There are conflicting reports coming in that there are still some tension |
| 1:29.8 | on the outskirts of Swayda as Bedouin tribe fighters are trying to advance into the city. |
| 1:39.5 | They say they are there because they want to attack militias that are supported by Israel, according to them. |
| 1:51.4 | The initial problem started between fighters of the tribal Bedouin fighters and some Druze militias over kidnapping issues, but it escalated |
... |
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