After five days of hunkering down at his home in the southern city of Sweida, 33-year-old Hossam emerged on Thursday and drove around to survey the damage. Wherever he went, the smell of death lingered.

A monitoring group says 594 people have been killed during the recent violence in southern Syria that took on a sectarian dimension. The UK-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) documented a significant outbreak of brutality in the killings that have gripped Suweida province since Sunday.

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.

After government loyalists and Druze militia clashed in the southern city of Suweida, Syrian government forces intervened.

The Israel Defense Forces said it struck "the entrance" of Syria's military headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday.At least one person was killed and 18 others were injured Wednesday in the Israeli airstrikes on the capital,

Syrian government forces have started withdrawing from the southern province of Sweida following days of vicious clashes with militias from the Druze minority.

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa accused Israel of trying to fracture Syria and promised to protect its Druze minority on Thursday after US intervention to help achieve a truce in fighting between government forces and Druze fighters.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) documented a significant outbreak of brutality in the killings that gripped Suweida province.

Israel has struck military tanks in southern Syria, where government forces and Bedouin tribes clash with Druze militias.