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.

The World’s Host Marco Werman speaks with Istanbul-based journalist Ruth Michaelson about unrest in Syria amid clashes between minority groups, government military involvement and Israeli airstrikes in the country.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) -U.S.-based firms Baker Hughes, Hunt Energy and Argent LNG will develop a masterplan for Syria's oil, gas and power sector, Argent LNG CEO Jonathan Bass said on Friday, in a partnership aimed at rebuilding energy infrastructure shattered by 14 years of civil war.

Several days of bitter sectarian fighting in the south of Syria has brought the fledgling government in Damascus dangerously close to direct conflict with Israel, after Israeli warplanes launched strikes against government buildings in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on July 16.

Under Israeli bombardment and diplomatic pressure, Ahmed al-Sharaa pulled troops from Syria's Druze heartland -- a move that exposes the interim leader's weakness just as he sought to assert control.Since seizing office in December after ousting longtime autocrat Bashar al-Assad,

A Syrian Druze woman living in the United Arab Emirates frantically tried to keep in touch with her family in her hometown in southern Syria as clashes raged there over the past days.

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

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, said the clashes started after members of a Bedouin tribe in Sweida province set up a checkpoint where they attacked and robbed a Druze man, leading to tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings between the tribes and Druze armed groups.