(19 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Damascus, Syria - 19 July 2025
1. Wide of Bedouin clan fighters posing at Umayyad Square
2. Wide of fighters sitting and standing
3. Mid of fighter out of focus, and fighters in the background
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammad Tarrad, clan fighter:
“We came from Deir ez-Zor to support our brothers (Bedouins), they (Druze) receive the Israeli Zionist support, the infidels. We, the sons of the clans, came to support them with our own ammunition, no one gave us any ammunition.”
5. Wide of clan fighters shaking hands
6. Wide of fighters
7. Mid of fighter
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Taher Al Ahmad, clan fighter:
“Our issue is not to enter Sweida, to destroy and to strike. No, our issue is with those who support (Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat) Al-Hijri, who belongs to the Israeli occupation. This is our issue, and we don't want to destroy, but we will show people our mercy before we demonstrate our strength that will be against those who belong to Al-Hijri group and who receive support from the Jews and others who want to destroy Syria.”
9. Various wide of clan fighters posing at the Umayyad sword statue
STORYLINE:
Clan fighters gathered in Syrian capital Damascus on Saturday to support Bedouin militants in their clashes with Druze armed factions in the southern province of Sweida despite calls for a ceasefire.
Supporters and members of Bedouin groups mobilized from other parts of Syria to join the fight.
Mohammad Tarrad said he came from Deir ez-Zor, the largest city in eastern Syria, to support Bedouin clans.
“We, the sons of the clans, came to support them with our own ammunition, no one gave us any ammunition,” Tarrad said.
Another clan fighter, Taher Al Ahmad said, “we don't want to destroy, but we will show people our mercy before we demonstrate our strength that will be against those who belong to Al-Hijri group", in reference to Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, a Druze religious leader opposed to the new government in Damascus.
US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said early Saturday that Israel and Syria had agreed to a ceasefire following Israel’s intervention this week between Syrian government forces and rival armed groups.
Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa said he would send troops back to quell the fighting, which left tens of thousands of people displaced.
Clashes began on Sunday between Druze militias and local Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes in Syria’s southern Sweida province.
Government forces intervened, nominally to restore order, but ended up taking the Bedouins’ side against the Druze.
Israel intervened in defense of the Druze, launching dozens of airstrikes on convoys of government fighters and even striking the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters in central Damascus.
The Druze form a substantial community in Israel, where they are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the Israeli military.
AP video by Ghaith Alsayed
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Video at Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIE44tfkRLg