Residents emerged from their homes to scenes of devastation on Thursday after government forces withdrew from the Syrian Druze-majority city of Sweida, leaving behind looted shops, burned homes and bodies littering the streets after days of violence.

"What I saw of the city looked as if it had just emerged from a flood or a natural disaster," Hanadi Obeid, a 39-year-old doctor, told AFP.

What started as deadly clashes between local Druze fighters and Bedouin tribes on Sunday quickly escalated after government forces were deployed to the province the following day.

(Reuters) -Violence in Syria pitting the Islamist-led government against members of the Druze community has put a spotlight on the small but influential minority. Straddling Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, the Druze occupy a special niche in the region's complex politics.

Israel has cited protecting the Druze as a reason for attacking forces from the Islamist-led government this week.

WHO ARE THE DRUZE?

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -The head of an Israeli parliamentary committee told the Finance Ministry on Thursday to come up with a compensation plan by next week for Israelis stranded abroad during last month's war with Iran or the panel would impose one.

Tens of thousands of Israelis were unable to return to the country for much of the 12-day conflict that began in mid-June since Israel's airspace was largely closed due to daily incoming rocket fire from Iran.

By Tim Cocks and Alexander Winning

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa's main coalition partners are embroiled in a spat over how to respond to looming tariffs from a hostile Trump administration, after the smaller party said the president's aide was denied a U.S. visa to negotiate with Washington.

The Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday that the United States had formally rejected President Cyril Ramaphosa's chosen interlocutor, Mcebisi Jonas, and had denied him a diplomatic visa in May.

By Ece Toksabay and Daren Butler

ANKARA (Reuters) -President Tayyip Erdogan risks losing support among nationalist Turkish voters in making peace with Kurdistan Workers Party militants, whose burning of weapons last week was dismissed by some as a stunt.

A backlash to Erdogan's call on Saturday for wide parliamentary support for the process underlines the challenge he faces in balancing nationalist and Kurdish demands, with a failure to do so potentially jeopardising the plan's success.

By Timour Azhari

DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Western diplomats were passing near Syria's defence ministry in Damascus in an armoured convoy when Israel struck the building with several missiles on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the matter, including a Syrian eyewitness.

No-one in the convoy was injured and it continued on its way, the people said, declining to give further details on the nationalities or number of those involved.

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel will raise defence spending by 42 billion shekels ($12.5 billion) in 2025 and 2026, the finance and defence ministries said on Thursday, citing the country's security challenges.

The budget agreement will allow the Defence Ministry to "advance urgent and essential procurement deals critical to national security," the ministries said in a statement.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Israeli airstrikes on Damascus are hampering Syria's efforts to find and destroy chemical weapons stockpiled during the rule of toppled ruler Bashar al-Assad, a government adviser said on Thursday.

A planned visit by inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has already had to be postponed, adviser Ibrahim Olabi said.

ROME (Reuters) -Pope Leo said on Thursday he hopes to travel to Turkey later this year for the 1,700th anniversary of a major Christian Church summit, in what would be the first foreign trip of his papacy.

The early centuries of Christianity were marked by a lively debate about how Jesus could be both God and man, and the Church decided on the issue at the First Council of Nicaea - now known as Iznik in Turkey - in 325.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Crispian Balmer

CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israeli forces killed at least 22 people in attacks in the Gaza Strip on Thursday and several were hurt in a strike on a church that late Pope Francis used to speak to regularly, medics and church officials said.

Eight men tasked with protecting aid trucks were reported among the dead in airstrikes that were carried out as mediators continued ceasefire talks in Doha.