Syria sets deadline for 'small groups' to join Defence Ministry

DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Syria's defence minister has called on small armed groups that have yet to merge with the security apparatus to do so within 10 days or face unspecified measures, in a bid to consolidate state authority six months after Bashar al-Assad was toppled.

A plethora of weapons outside government control has posed a challenge to interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa's efforts to establish control, as groups that both back him and oppose him remain armed.

Syrian Defence Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra, in a statement late on Saturday, said "military units" had now been integrated into "a unified institutional framework", calling this a great achievement.

"We stress the need for the remaining small military groups to join the ministry within a maximum period of 10 days from the date of this announcement, in order to complete the efforts of unification and organisation," he said.

He did not say which factions he was talking about.

The statement did not seem aimed at the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a large Kurdish-led force in the northeast that signed an agreement with Sharaa earlier this year aimed at integration with state institutions.

Damascus received a big diplomatic boost last week when U.S. President Donald Trump met Sharaa and announced sanctions on Syria would be lifted. Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab has said the decision would support efforts "to consolidate security and stability and promote civil peace in Syria and the region".

Sunni Muslim Arab rebel groups which, like Sharaa's Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, fought Assad during the war agreed in December to dissolve into the Defence Ministry.

Syria has faced several outbreaks of violence this year.

In March, Sunni militants killed hundreds of members of the Alawite minority in revenge killings prompted by what the government described as deadly attacks by Assad-loyalists on its forces in the coastal region.

More than 100 people were reported killed by fighting that erupted in late April in Druze areas near Damascus, pitting Sunni militants against Druze fighters.

The Syrian authorities conducted raids on Saturday targeting Islamic State cells in Aleppo.

(Writing by Tom Perry;Editing by Helen Popper)