Syria announces ceasefire after sectarian violence

Syria’s defence minister announced a ceasefire shortly after government forces entered a key city in Sweida province on Tuesday.

The announcement came a day after sectarian clashes that killed dozens, and after a state-run news agency report that Israel had launched a strike in the area.

Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said in a



statement that after an “agreement with the city’s notables and dignitaries, we will respond only to the sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw groups.”

The clashes began with a series of tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between members of local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province, a centre of the Druze community.