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.

An Israeli military official said, "we are reinforcing forces in the Golan Heights and along the border, ready for a multitude of scenarios."

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced Wednesday a renewed ceasefire after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the country’s postwar political transition and have drawn intervention by Syria’s powerful neighbor, Israel.

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Tensions between Israel and Syria stem from the founding of the Jewish state in 1948, when Damascus joined other Arab states in the region in declaring war on Israel after rejecting the UN Partition Plan the previous year.

United Nations sanctions monitors have seen no "active ties" this year between Al Qaeda and the Islamist group leading Syria's interim government, an unpublished U.N. report said, a finding that could strengthen an expected U.

LATAKIA, Syria -- United Nations teams have deployed Sunday to the Syrian coast, where firefighters are battling wildfires for a fourth day.

The UK is to start processing Syrian asylum claims again, more than seven months after decisions were paused following the fall of the Assad regime. Asylum minister Dame Angela Eagle said the Home Office had "worked to lift the pause as soon as there was sufficient information to make accurate and well-evidenced determinations".