The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said the clashes started after members of a Bedouin tribe in Sweida province set up a checkpoint where they attacked and robbed a Druze man, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings between the tribes and Druze armed groups.

Syria announced that its army had begun to withdraw from violence-hit Sweida on Wednesday, following a wave of Israeli strikes on the capital and a US call for government forces to leave the majority-Druze southern city.

Clashes between Bedouin tribal fighters, caretaker government forces and Druze militias stretched into their fourth day in Sweida on Wednesday while Israeli forces struck the Syrian capital, Damascus.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — Israel bombed the Syrian army's headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday after warning the Islamist-led government to leave the country's Druze minority alone, as authorities announced a ceasefire in the community's southern heartland after deadly sectarian clashes.

Israel threatened to escalate attacks on Syrian government forces unless they withdrew from Sweida, a southern province dominated by the country’s Druse minority.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck "the entrance" of Syria's military headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday.

Syria has announced an ”immediate and complete halt” to its offensive against the Druze minority, after Israel attacked key symbols of power in Damascus. The Syrian government said it had agreed to the ceasefire with some but not all representatives of the Druze community,

Dozens of wounded and dead arrived at a hospital in Al-Mazraa in Syria's southern Sweida province on Tuesday following clashes between local militias, clans and government forces.

Israeli officials react to the ongoing violence in Syria's Sweida between regime forces and the local Druze community. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israeli Druze citizens not to cross the border amid ongoing clashes in Sweida in southern Syria on Wednesday afternoon.