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3. Detainee Swap in Sweida Following Deadly Clashes

Syria's government and Druze factions conducted an exchange of 86 detainees held since the two sides fought a deadly battle last year, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday.

Druze factions battled Bedouin fighters in the southern Syrian province of Sweida last July, in some of the worst internecine violence the country had seen since the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in 2024.

Security forces then intervened in the fighting on the side of the Bedouins, alongside other tribal groups, in a battle that saw more than 2,000 people killed, including 789 Druze civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

"Today, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) facilitated the release of 86 detainees between Damascus and Sweida," the committee said in a statement.

A Druze official had told AFP on Tuesday that negotiations mediated by the United States were underway between the Syrian government and a Druze religious leader in Sweida.

Tarek al-Maghoush, in charge of the prisoners and missing persons file for the National Guard armed group of prominent Druze leader Hikmat al- Hijri, told AFP that "the negotiations were difficult and were conducted under the sponsorship of guarantor states, with assistance from allies".

He said the talks were indirect, with a US mediator, adding that the issue of forcibly disappeared people remained unresolved.

Talal Amer, a spokesman for the group, confirmed to AFP that the US was mediating, adding that Israel was providing "supervision".

During the violence, Israel intervened militarily, bombing Damascus, saying it was defending the Druze.

The Druze follow a faith that is an offshoot of Islam, and live mainly in Syria, Lebanon and Israel.

In Syria, the southern province of Sweida is the Druze's historical heartland.

At a government-manned checkpoint in Al-Mtouna in Sweida, AFP journalists saw two buses carrying detainees who, according to the ICRC and Druze officials, had been transported from Adra prison near the capital Damascus.

Under ICRC and government escort, they were headed towards Sweida, accompanied by an ambulance.

Soon afterwards, a bus carrying security forces members held by a Druze faction arrived at the same spot.

Syrian state television reported a "significant deployment of internal security forces and the military police on the Damascus-Sweida road to secure the operation".

Stephan Sakalian, head of the ICRC's delegation in Syria, said he hoped the exchange would pave the way for other similar releases, with an unspecified number of people still held since the violence last July.

A ceasefire took hold in southern Syria on July 20, but access to Sweida remains difficult.

AFP