Syrian authorities evacuate Bedouin civilians from Sweida as fragile truce holds

The Syrian government has evacuated hundreds of Bedouin families from the mostly Druze city of Sweida to Deraa in a bid to prevent further fighting as a fragile ceasefire appears to hold. A truce ended a week of deadly clashes in Sweida but the city appears to remain under siege, with government troops and auxiliaries surrounding both the city and its rural outskirts. A Syrian Red Crescent official told The National that the families, many of them from Bedouin backgrounds, were taken in 120 buses to the near by province of Deraa, the launch pad of fierce attacks against Sweida by the government.