REUTERS, Amman

More than 89 people were killed and dozens injured in armed clashes in Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida, the Syrian interior ministry said early yesterday, in the latest bout of sectarian clashes.

The violence erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida, witnesses said.

This is the first time sectarian fighting has erupted inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.

Last April saw clashes between Sunni fighters and armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, which later spread to another district near the provincial capital.

“This cycle of violence has exploded in a terrifyng way and if it doesn’t end we are heading toward to a bloodbath,” said Rayan Marouf, a Druze researcher based in Sweida. The clashes involving Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze militias were centered in Maqwas neighborhood east of Sweida.