Bodies in the streets: Druze caught in Sweida violence reveal horrific days of bloodshed

The National spoke to Druze civilians who shared their testimony of Syria's spiral of violence

Sweida Gif 8

Ramzi has witnessed horrors throughout his career as a doctor during Syria’s 13-year civil war. But few compare, he said, to the scenes he witnessed this week at the main hospital in Sweida, a Druze-majority town where bloody sectarian violence raged for days.

“I saw at least 200 bodies at the hospital, many of them civilians,” he recalled.

Videos purportedly filmed inside the hospital show bloodstained corridors and rooms strewn with bodies, many soaked in blood and piled on top of each other.

The National spoke with six Druze civilians from Sweida who described four days of intense fear as fighting spread through their city, confining them to their homes amid heavy shelling without water and electricity. Their names have been changed to protect their identities.

Some recounted seeing neighbours killed after stepping outside; others said they recognised the bodies of loved ones in videos circulating online.

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  A member of a government-aligned security force fires a weapon amid clashes in Syria's southern city of Sweida. AFP

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  Residents flee their homes amid the clashes in Sweida. AFP

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  Clashes raged in the southern city after a ceasefire between government forces and Druze armed groups collapsed. AFP

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  Government forces take aim from a rooftop position. AFP

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  Troops patrol an area as residents flee their homes amid clashes. AFP

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  Heavily armed troops enter densely populated neighbourhoods. AFP

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  Women rush on a street as they flee their homes amid the clashes. AFP

“I’ve only seen similar scenes the day ISIS attacked Sweida province,” Ramzi said, referring to a surprise attack by members of ISIS in 2018 that killed more than 200 people. A minority sect that follows a religion derived from Islam, the Druze are considered heretics by some extremist Sunni militant groups.

Clashes erupted on Sunday in Sweida, in southern Syria, before a retaliatory exchange between armed Bedouin and Druze factions, two long-standing rivals, quickly escalated into widespread violence as Syrian troops were sent to the area to quell the unrest.

Druze factions, which deeply distrust the government, mobilised to repel its troops.

In hours, the fighting turned into bloodshed, with many breaches reported against civilians. As videos were posted on social media, reports emerged of government-affiliated troops abusing and humiliating Druze people, as well as looting and burning their homes.

Syrian military police entered Sweida after clashes broke out last weekend. Reuters

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria has said it is “deeply alarmed” by the violence in Sweida, quoting reports from local residents of “killings, abductions, burning of properties and looting, as well as an increase in incitement and hate speech online and in person”.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), a war monitor, says at least than 254 people have been killed, including civilians and fighters from both sides, as well as members of the security forces, amid “extrajudicial killings, mutual shelling, as well as air strikes carried out by Israeli forces”. Israel joined the fighting by launching dozens of strikes across Syria, claiming to be defending the Druze minority.

The reported breaches against civilians come as Syria’s new government, led by an Islamist faction once affiliated with Al Qaeda, struggles to assert authority over myriad armed groups, despite calls to bring all factions under the command of the Ministry of Defence.

For Rahaf al Doughli, a professor of Middle East and North African Studies at Lancaster University, the violence reflected a lack of control by Syria’s President Ahmad Al Shara over the patchwork of factions operating in Syria, despite promises of unification.

“It was a major mistake to launch an attack on Sweida using the same military groups that have yet to undergo proper training or discipline,” she said.

The fighting lasted for four days until Syrian authorities announced on Wednesday an “immediate and complete halt” to their offensive, following a deal with some, but not all, representatives of the Druze community.

Mr Al Shara said on Thursday that the government was “keen on holding accountable those who transgressed and abused our Druze people”.

Residents said they believed Syria's General Security was involved in the violence against them, but were unable to identify the killers amid the chaos.

The National was not able to independently verify which factions or groups were responsible for the reported violations against locals.

Interviews were frequently interrupted by the sound of explosions, even hours after the ceasefire was agreed.

Some Druze people crossed a buffer zone in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights during the clashes. EPA

Hospital under siege

Ramzi said he left Sweida Hospital on Tuesday to rest and was unable to return, as all roads were closed amid indiscriminate shelling.

“Authorities should have secured a safe corridor to the hospital so that at least the wounded could be treated,” he said.

He added that the hospital remained under siege for days, without medical supplies, electricity, or water. “Roads to the hospital were cut, water and electricity were shut off, the wounded had no chance of being saved,” he said.

According to Ramzi, at least two doctors were killed by snipers, one while attempting to reach the centre, the other in a car alongside her son. He said he later saw the boy’s body among the dead inside the hospital.

SNHR documented the killing of children, women and medical workers in the violence.

Syrians have their say on deadly clashes and Israeli strikes

01:24

'What did they do?'

Many Sweida residents were trapped in their homes for days without water or electricity, surrounded by shelling and gunfire. Venturing outside came at the risk of death.

Timour, a resident from Abou Hayan Nabwan in the centre of Sweida, said his neighbour, a retired engineer, was shot dead by a sniper as he stepped outside. “He was trying to get to his village, hoping to escape,” he said.

“I wanted to run out and help him, but it was too dangerous. I saw his body from the window. From what I could see, there was no way he could have survived,” he added.

Baha, another Sweida resident, said he had no news from his family for hours - as he was sheltering in a calmer part of the city with poor internet connections - until he saw a video online in which he recognised a cousin with his son, their lifeless bodies lying on the ground in front of their home in the Sawat Blat neighbourhood. “What did they do?” he lamented.

In the video, seen by The National, a man is heard saying: “This is inside the city of Sweida. Praise be to God. These are your dogs, Hijri.

"This is what happens to anyone who turns against the state,” he added, as he drove past two bodies in civilian clothes, which Baha said were his relatives.

The man was referring to Sheikh Hikmat Al Hijri, one of the main Druze spiritual leaders, who has openly opposed Syria’s new leadership in Damascus.

“Liberation has been achieved through the determination and will of Syria’s honourable sons,” the voice continued.

Kurdish Syrian women march in support of the people of Sweida in the eastern city of Qamishli. AFP

Baha said both his cousin and his cousin’s son were civilians. The father was in his fifties, the son just 20. The family owned a small poultry business, he said, and had no connection to Sheikh Al Hijri and his armed group.

Videos circulating widely on social media appear to show graphic scenes of violence, though The National was unable to independently verify their origin.

In one video, masked gunmen are seen shooting at a group of unarmed men seated in a line near a roundabout. The National could verify the location as Tishreen Square in central Sweida but was unable to identify the victims and perpetrators.

Another video shows at least 10 bodies lying in pools of blood inside a traditional Druze living room. Several residents told The National the victims were members of a prominent local family, the Radwans. One said he recognised the family’s salon.

Residents also said that indiscriminate shelling has destroyed civilian houses. Tamara, another Sweida resident, said her parents' house was heavily damaged in a shelling on Wednesday, though her parents were not harmed.

Other reported abuses included scenes of humiliation. Fawzi, a taxi driver in his thirties who had been confined to his home amid the gunfire and shelling, heard men chanting outside “Druze pigs!"

Videos circulating online also showed armed men forcibly shaving the moustaches of Druze men, a symbol of masculinity in their culture.

On Thursday morning, as the situation began to calm, Ramzi left for a quieter area in Sweida. He shared a video with The National showing the aftermath of the fighting. Charred cars lined the road, and most shopfronts had their glass shattered, the debris scattered across the ground.

On Thursday evening, he said the city remained sealed off.

Ms Al Doughli said the latest violence echoes what happened in the coastal area in March, when hundreds of unarmed Alawites were killed in a spree of sectarian killings by factions nominally affiliated with the government and by armed civilians, according to war monitors.

The announcement, after the fall of the Assad regime, of the integration of all armed factions was more of an “accessory process” than an institutionalised one, she said.

“We saw the first impact of this in the violations that happened along the coast,” she added.

“What comes after Sweida is unlike anything before it. We are approaching a very critical juncture in Syria’s future. The prospect of Syria’s division might be more looming than ever,” she warned.

The cycle of violence continued in Sweida just hours after the ceasefire. On Thursday afternoon, Druze militias carried out revenge attacks on Bedouin families. No casualties were immediately reported.

The Syrian state news agency, Sana, reported what it called "massacres" from "outlaw groups" against Bedouin tribes in the Al Maqous neighbourhood, the area where clashes had initially erupted, forcing many residents to flee.