Syria interior ministry says new ceasefire agreed in Sweida

Syria's interior ministry has said a new ceasefire was reached Wednesday in Sweida, after an earlier truce collapsed amid days of clashes between members of the Druze minority and Syrian government forces.

"An agreement was reached for a ceasefire in Sweida and the deployment of security checkpoints in the city," an unidentified interior ministry source said in a statement carried by state news agency Sana.

According to the interior ministry, the deal will involve the deployment of government forces in the city who will set up checkpoints, with the area becoming fully integrated into the Syrian state. The deal was reportedly struck with Druze groups who are prepared to work with the state.

The truce comes following days of clashes in Sweida which erupted on Sunday between members of the Druze minority and Syrian government forces. According to the war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 300 people were killed in the clashes, including 40 civilians, 27 of them in “summary executions… by members of the defense and interior ministries".

On Wednesday, Israel launched a series of strikes on Sweida and Damascus, where it targeted government buildings and killed at least one person and injured another 18.