Dhaka, July 18 -- Syrian government forces have withdrawn from the whole of Sweida province after days of sectarian bloodshed in the heartland of the Druze minority, a war monitor and witnesses said Thursday.
The pullout came after Islamist interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in a televised address that responsibility" for security in Sweida would be handed to religious elders and some local factions "based on the supreme national interest, reports AFP.
"The Syrian authorities have withdrawn their military forces from the city of Sweida and the the whole province, and Druze fighters have deployed" in their place, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Government troops who had pulled out of the province t...