STORY: Casualties from recent clashes in Sweida were transported to a field medical point in Deraa countryside to receive treatment on Friday (July 18).

One of the local Bedouin leaders said that the situation was out of control.

Bloodshed in Sweida left at least 321 people dead, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said on Friday, in a new toll.

A Syrian minister said that the government has recovered 87 bodies, but he did not indicate if it was the entire toll from recent violence between Bedouin tribes and the Druze minority in and around the city in the south of the country.

The clashes in parts of Sweida province continued into Friday, according to residents of Sweida and Ryan Marouf, the head of local news outlet Sweida24.

Syria's interior ministry spokesperson said on Friday that government forces were not preparing to redeploy to Sweida Province, the state news agency reported.

Syrian troops withdrew from Sweida after a truce was announced on Wednesday (July 16), but clashes resumed late on Thursday (July 17) between fighters from Bedouin tribes and the Druze, who are part of a religious minority in Syria that has followers in Lebanon and Israel.

Damascus had this week deployed troops to Sweida, which is adjacent to territory controlled by Israel, to try to quell some of the most intense internal fighting in Syria since the interim government took power late last year.

Israel became involved in the hostilities on Wednesday. It said it would not allow Syria's Islamist-led government to deploy troops to the south, attacked Syrian troops in Sweida and Syria's defense ministry, and struck close to the presidential palace in Damascus.

Describing Syria's new rulers as barely disguised jihadists, Israel has vowed to shield the area's Druze community from attack, encouraged by calls from Israel's own Druze minority.

Israel's military carried out new attacks in Sweida province overnight.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

Casualties from recent clashes in Sweida receive treatment in Deraa countryside

VIDEO SHOWS: AMBULANCES ARRIVING TO A FIELD MEDICAL POINT IN DERAA COUNTRYSIDE / CASUALTIES AT HOSPITAL / SOUNDBITE FROM ONE OF THE BEDOUIN LEADERS

RESENDING WITH FULL SCRIPT.

SHOWS: DERAA COUNTRYSIDE, SYRIA (JULY 16, 2025) (REUTERS – Access all)

1. AMBULANCES ARRIVING TO FIELD MEDICAL POINT

2. MEDICS CARRYING INJURED MAN INTO FIELD MEDICAL POINT

3. VARIOUS OF INJURED PEOPLE BEING TREATED BY MEDICAL TEAM

4. MEN PLACING INJURED SYRIAN ON STRETCHER

5. (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) ONE OF THE BEDOUIN LEADERS IN DERAA COUNTRYSIDE, KHALIL AL-ALYAN, SAYING:

“(There were) martyrs today. The situation is out of the state’s control. There has been an aggression.”

6. ARMED MAN CHECKING COVERED BODY PLACED ON STRETCHER

7. (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) ONE OF THE BEDOUIN LEADERS IN DERAA COUNTRYSIDE, KHALIL AL-ALYAN, SAYING:

"This matter stirred public anger and they mobilized, all the tribes mobilized to return the women and return the children from the clutches of this lawless, out-of-control gang."

8. VARIOUS OF INJURED MAN ON STRETCHER BEING MOVED FROM FIELD MEDICAL POINT TOWARDS AMBULANCE

9. ARMED MEN CHANTING (Arabic) ‘God is great, death before humiliation'