Here's what triggered the latest deadly sectarian clashes in Syria, and why it matters

BEIRUT (AP) — Clashes between Bedouin tribes, government forces and members of a minority sect in Syria have left dozens dead and once again raised fears of a breakdown in the country’s fragile postwar order.

The country is deeply divided as it tries to emerge from decades of dictatorship and nearly 14 years of civil war.

Clashes have on several occasions broken out between forces loyal to the government and Druze fighters since the fall of President Bashar Assad in early December in a lightning rebel offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgent groups, but Monday’s fighting threatened to escalate into a larger conflict.

Here are the main reasons the clashes expanded in recent days and background on the two sides:

The Druze and Syria’s new government

The Druze religious sec t is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. In Syria, they largely live in the southern Sweida province and some suburbs of Damascus, mainly in Jaramana and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya to the south.

The transitional government has promised to include minorities, including the Druze, but the new 23-member government in Syria announced in late March only has one Druze member, Minister of Agriculture Amjad Badr.

Under the Assad family’s tight rule, religious freedom was guaranteed as the country then boasted about its secular and Arab nationalist system.

The Druze have been divided over how to deal with their issues with the new status quo in the country. Many Druze support a dialogue with the government while others want a more confrontational approach.