The violence erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida, witnesses said.

This is the first time sectarian fighting has erupted inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.

Last April saw clashes between Sunni fighters and armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, which later spread to another district near the provincial capital.

“This cycle of violence has exploded in a terrifyng way and if it doesn’t end we are heading toward to a bloodbath,” said Rayan Marouf, a Druze researcher based in Sweida who runs the Suwayda24 website.

The clashes involving Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze militias were centered in Maqwas neighborhood east of Sweida, which is inhabited by Bedouin tribes, and was encircled by armed Druze groups and later seized.

The Syrian ministry of interior said that its forces will begin direct intervention in Sweida to resolve the conflict, calling on local parties in the Druze city to cooperate with the security forces.

Armed Bedouin tribesmen also launched attacks on Druze villages on the western and north outskirts of the city, residents said.

A medical source told Reuters that at least 15 bodies had been taken to the morgue at Sweida’s state hospital. Around 50 people were injured, with some transported to Deraa city for medical care.

The violence marked the latest episode of sectarian bloodshed in Syria, where fears among minority groups have surged since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al-Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.

Those concerns intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.

It was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended last December with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.