Sectarian violence erupted again in southern Syria as local Sunni Bedouin tribes fought armed factions for the Druze religious community. The Syrian government dispatched troops to restore order, and Israel launched airstrikes to protect the Druze.

Syria’s foreign ministry says a number of soldiers and civilians have been killed by coordinated Israeli drone attacks and airstrikes near the two countries’ border.

The Syrian government deployed its forces in the Druze-majority city of Sweida, in a bid by the Islamist authorities to extend their power to the area controlled by local armed groups.

At least 248 people have been killed in southern Syria’s Sweida province following several days of clashes that triggered the deployment of government forces, a war monitor says. The toll includes 92 members of the Druze minority, 28 of them civilians with 21 “killed in summary executions by government forces,” according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syria's defence minister announced a ceasefire shortly after government forces entered a key city in Sweida province on Tuesday.