Damascus - Saba:
The death toll from ongoing armed clashes and mutual shelling between local militias and tribal gunmen in the al-Muqous neighborhood, east of al-Sweida city in southern Syria, has risen to 21 people, including two children, with around 50 others wounded—several of them children—according to reports on Sunday.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that dozens of armed fighters from rural Daraa mobilized in vehicles toward the conflict zones in the northern and western countryside of Sweida, amid fears of escalating violence in the coming hours following the deadly attacks earlier in the day.
Fierce clashes continued in the al-Muqous neighborhood of al-Sweida city, with tensions spilling over into rural areas to the west and north of the province.
Heavy fighting erupted this afternoon at the northern entrance of al-Sweida province near the village of al-Sura al-Kabira, following an assault by tribal gunmen on police checkpoints affiliated with the Internal Security Forces. The attackers also fired mortar shells toward the outskirts of the village while attempting to advance toward the checkpoint.
Earlier in the day, armed groups launched coordinated attacks to cut off the Damascus–al-Sweida highway from multiple points, most notably near the town of Barak in the Damascus countryside, further exacerbating the unrest gripping the region.