Armed Bedouin clans have withdrawn from the Druze-majority Syrian city of Sweida after a week of deadly clashes. A U.S.

Video footage circulating online and verified by NBC News showed an execution-style shooting of Hosam Saraya, 35, and his family members.

Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa's government responded by deploying forces to the city. Druze residents of Suweida told the BBC they had witnessed "barbaric acts" as gunmen - government forces and foreign fighters - attacked people. Israel targeted these forces, saying they were acting to protect the Druze.

An American citizen from Oklahoma was among eight men, all family members, rounded up and killed during the sectarian violence that flared in Syria last week.

A Syrian government committee says over 1,400 civilians were killed in sectarian violence on the country’s coast earlier this year. The violence was the first major incident to emerge after

Tens of thousands of people remained displaced by the violence and the United Nations has been unable to bring in much-needed humanitarian and medical aid because of ongoing clashes.

In this whirl of shrapnel and shellfire, hopes for a new era of peace in a nation long torn apart by dictatorship and a 14-year civil war are quickly fading. Instead, Syria appears on the brink of being dragged into yet another civil and international conflict.

As violence broke out last week between two ethnic groups in southern Syria, both the Israeli and Syrian governments intervened.