Defence ministry troops carried out executions and other violations against both civilians and Druze fighters prior to agreeing to a ceasefire, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group.

A fresh wave of deadly sectarian violence has rocked Syria, highlighting the country's fragile security landscape.

Following the fall of the Assad regime, Israel has established a new “red line” in Syria, launching major airstrikes on Damascus on July 16 to warn the new government against attacking the Druze minority in the south.

Violence in Syria pitting the Islamist-led government against members of the Druze community has put a spotlight on the small but influential minority. Straddling Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights,

After days of bloodshed in Syria's Druze city of Sweida, survivors emerged on Thursday to collect and bury the scores of dead found across the city. A ceasefire overnight brought an end to ferocious fighting between Druze militia and government forces sent to the city to quell clashes between Druze and Bedouin fighters.

Syrian government forces largely pulled out of the southern province of Sweida on Thursday after days of clashes with militias linked to the Druze minority that threatened to unravel the country's post-war transition.

Dozens of Druze crowded the Israeli-controlled side of the armistice line in the occupied Golan Heights on Thursday, hoping to catch a glimpse of relatives on the Syrian-held side who might try to cross the barbed-wire frontier.

Roughly half of the world’s 1,000,000 Druze live in Syria, mainly in the southern Sweida province. Under the reign of former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, the country was governed with a secular policy of religious tolerance. Druze militias were also ...