Armed Bedouin clans have withdrawn from the Druze-majority Syrian city of Sweida after a week of deadly clashes. A U.S.

As violence broke out last week between two ethnic groups in southern Syria, both the Israeli and Syrian governments intervened.

SWEIDA: Syrian authorities evacuated Bedouin families from the Druze-majority city of Sweida on Monday, after a ceasefire in the southern province halted a week of sectarian bloodshed that a monitor said killed more than 1,260 people.

Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa's government responded by deploying forces to the city. Druze residents of Suweida told the BBC they had witnessed "barbaric acts" as gunmen - government forces and foreign fighters - attacked people. Israel targeted these forces, saying they were acting to protect the Druze.

In this whirl of shrapnel and shellfire, hopes for a new era of peace in a nation long torn apart by dictatorship and a 14-year civil war are quickly fading. Instead, Syria appears on the brink of being dragged into yet another civil and international conflict.

Suwayda, the Druze community is facing what its members have described as an "ethnic cleansing campaign" amidst a rapidly deteriorating security situation that has claimed the lives of hundreds over the past week.

Syria's interim government said sectarian clashes in the Druze province of Sweida were "halted" on Sunday as security forces redeployed to the southern region and tribal forces that had converged on Sweida withdrew.

During a U.N. Security Council emergency meeting, the U.S. ambassador said “the United States did not support recent Israeli strikes.”