Clashes that shook southern Syria this week have killed hundreds of people, including civilians, and drawn in an array of both local and international players, harking back to the dynamics of the country’s nearly 14-year civil war.

The Islamist-led government's troops withdrew from the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, where scores of people have been killed in days of conflict.

Ramzi has witnessed horrors throughout his career as a doctor during Syria’s 13-year civil war. But few compare, he said, to the scenes he witnessed this week at the main hospital in Sweida, a Druze-majority town where bloody sectarian violence raged for days.

In Syria's Druze city of Sweida, sectarian violence has led to numerous deaths, with government forces clashing with Druze militia. The violence worsened after the government's arrival, deepening distrust of the Islamist-led government in Damascus.

Syrian troops pulled out of the Druze heartland province of Sweida Thursday on orders from the Islamist-led government, leaving bodies strewn on the street, AFP journalists reported from the provincia

The Israeli military has launched a rare airstrike in the heart of Damascus hitting a Syrian Defense Ministry building, as clashes in the southern Syrian city of Sweida continues to flare.

Israel bombed the Syrian army headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday after warning the Islamist-led government to leave the Druze minority alone in its Sweida heartland, where a war monitor says sectarian clashes have killed nearly 250 people.