Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service.
Coming to you live from London, I'm Rajini Vaidyanathan.
Fighting in the southern Syrian city of Suwaydah after the collapse of a ceasefire which pledged to end the violence between tribal fighters loyal to the Syrian government and militia belonging to the Druze minority group.
Nearly 250 people are reported to have been killed in the sectarian violence in Suwaydah in recent days.
The Syrian presidencies vowed to punish those responsible.
Well, as the fighting continues,
Israel launched further attacks on Syrian forces, including strikes on the capital Damascus.
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his military was trying to protect the Druze in Syria.
My brothers, the Druze citizens of Israel,
the situation in Sweta in southwestern Syria is very serious.
The IDF is operating, the air force is operating.
Other forces are operating.
We are acting to save our Druze brothers and to eliminate the regime's gangs.
Well, Leena Sinjab, our correspondent,
has been following the story from Beirut and she joins us live.
Good to talk to you, Leena.
First of all, what's the latest from Syria in terms of reports of explosions?
Well,
it seems that there was another strike on the headquarter of the defence forces in the capital Damascus.
The first, earlier in the day, we've seen images of it that hit the entrance of the headquarter,