A drone view of the city of Sweida, following renewed fighting between Bedouin fighters and Druze gunmen, despite an announced truce, in Syria, on July 18, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Amnesty International said Tuesday (September 2, 2025) that it had evidence of Syrian government personnel and affiliated forces executing 46 members of the Druze minority during a week of sectarian violence in July, demanding the perpetrators be held to account.
The bloodshed erupted on July 13 with clashes between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin but rapidly escalated, drawing in government forces and tribal fighters from other parts of Syria.
Syrian authorities have said their forces intervened to stop the clashes, but witnesses, Druze factions and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor have accused them of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses against the Druze.
The Observatory has put the overall toll at over 2,000 people, including 789 Druze civilians “summarily executed by defence and interior ministry personnel”.
Amnesty said it documented the “deliberate shooting and killing” of 46 Druze in Sweida city or on its outskirts on July 15 and 16.
“These executions by government and government-affiliated forces occurred in a public square, residential homes, a school, a hospital and a ceremonial hall,” it said.
Amnesty said its evidence included “verified videos of armed men in security and military uniforms, some bearing official insignia, executing unarmed people”.
It also said it had verified photographs, conducted weapons analyses and collected witness testimonies.
The rights group said it had shared its preliminary findings with the interior and defence ministries but had not received a response.
‘Fair proceedings’
At least four of the armed men in the verified videos wore a black patch associated with the Islamic State (IS) group, Amnesty said, with three of them filmed working beside security forces personnel.
IS has not claimed responsibility for attacks in Sweida.
After government forces left Sweida, an AFP photographer saw bodies on the street in the centre of the city.
“When government security or military forces deliberately and unlawfully kill someone, or when affiliated forces do so with government complicity or acquiescence, that constitutes an extrajudicial execution,” Amnesty’s Syria researcher Diana Semaan said in the statement, noting it was “a crime under international law”.
She urged authorities to “promptly, independently, impartially and transparently investigate these executions and hold perpetrators accountable in fair proceedings”.
Amnesty noted it was also currently investigating “credible reports” of abductions carried out by Druze armed groups and Bedouin fighters.
Authorities in July formed an investigating committee into the Sweida violence that is to present its findings within three months.
They also vowed accountability after the emergence of one of the videos verified by Amnesty, which showed the killing of an unarmed man in Sweida hospital.
Residents in Sweida have decried the poor humanitarian situation in the province following the clashes, with the road to Damascus cut off for more than a month and only reopening last week.
Published – September 02, 2025 05:56 am IST
