LOCAL residents grabbed weapons and fought side by side with government troops against Isis fighters in Syria’s Sweida province today, following a string of suicide bombings that may have killed over 100 people.

Attackers struck in a number of villages and the number killed was unclear, with news agency Sana saying 38 had died in the bombings themselves. A local health official said after subsequent fighting the death toll had risen to 90.

The southern province is largely populated by the Druze minority, whose beliefs are regarded as heresy by Isis and al-Qaida, both of which have massacred Druze communities during the Syrian war and razed their shrines.

Isis claimed responsibility for today’s attacks, boasting it had slain over 100 people. It bragged of “surprise attacks on government and security centres,” though in Sweida city they included a motorcycle bomber who blew himself up at a vegetable market at 5am, slaughtering stallholders as they were setting up.

Sweida has not been a key battlefield in the war, but troops were removed from the province recently to help drive Isis and other terrorist groups out of Daraa and Quneitra provinces and along the border with the Golan Heights. This Syrian land was seized by Israel in 1967, which formally annexed it in 1981 but remains the only country to recognise its claim.

A Syrian fighter plane targeting Isis positions in the area was shot down by Israel yesterday for allegedly overflying the heights, confirming Tel Aviv’s “support for the armed terrorist groups,” according to a Syrian army source.