‘It was horrifying beyond words’: hundreds killed in violence sweeping southern Syria

“The bodies on the streets had been defiled, mutilated,” said Qantar, a lawyer. “What happened was horrifying beyond words. I don’t know how we’re supposed to cope with all of this, the loss of so many and the scale of brutality.”

Over the course of the day, along with other residents, she began to identify and bury the dead they found on the small network of streets that make up the city centre. Qantar feared more corpses lay in outlying villages, exposed to the summer heat for days, with people still unable to reach them.

Months of rising tensions between local Druze militias and Bedouin tribesmen spilled over into open battles across the Sweida province last week, inflamed by the arrival of government security forces loyal to the fledgling administration in Damascus.

In the first five days of fighting, the Syrian Network for Human Rights recorded at least 321 killed and 436 wounded amid reports of sectarian abuse, shelling and extrajudicial killings, with numbers expected to rise as more bodies are found.

The Syrian government announced an “immediate and comprehensive” ceasefire on Saturday and redeployed security forces to Sweida. Fears that the shaky ceasefire – the third within a week – could collapse were underscored by concerns about the consequences of sending government security forces to Sweida for a second time.

The violence quickly became the latest crisis for Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, since he spearheaded an insurgency that ousted former dictator Bashar al-Assad last December. Compounding the disaster for Syria has been an intervention by neighbouring Israel, which threatened to further inflame tensions.

Israeli airstrikes targeted the defence ministry in central Damascus as well as the grounds of the presidential palace, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky. Throughout the week, Israel also struck swathes of southern Syria.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed his forces were acting to protect the Druze, who dominate Sweida and also stretch into the occupied Golan Heights, but Sharaa accused Israel of stirring instability and “seeking to turn our land into a battlefield of endless chaos”.

Former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas labelled Netanyahu’s actions as “counterintuitive and reckless”. The decision to strike the heart of the Syrian capital, Pinkas said, was about “Netanyahu's delusions of grandeur that he can reshape the Middle East.”

Netanyahu’s actions in Syria also strained relations with the White House, which recently lifted sanctions on Syria to try to help the country rebuild. State department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters Washington did not support Israel striking Syria, adding: “I think we’ve been very clear about our displeasure – certainly the president has.”

Syrian analyst Suhail al-Ghazi said that Israeli strikes on Syria had proven to be a risky strategy with no clear aim. Israel’s decision to attack Syria, including its capital, came just days after a Syrian and Israeli official held a landmark face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of Sharaa’s visit to Azerbaijan.

“Just a few days ago there were negotiations in Baku, then the Israelis did the opposite and resorted to airstrikes on the provinces and the capital – what is the endgame?” said Ghazi. Meanwhile, he added: “Sweida province is in ruins, local society has taken a huge hit and Druze relations with their neighbours are completely demolished.”

Israel's claims of protection meant little to Druze civilians such as Qantar. She described how people in Sweida had initially welcomed forces from Syria’s general security services, believing they would calm fighting between local militias.

\Within an hour of their arrival, she said, some members of the government-aligned forces “began storming homes, executing young men in the streets, smashing things and burning houses”.

Qantar took shelter in a house along with around a dozen other women and children. “We were trapped for more than 12 hours,” she said. “We were all sitting in one room with the lights off, not making a sound so they would think the house was empty. They still shot at the building.”

Residents of Sweida, largely members of the Druze sect – an esoteric offshoot of Shia Islam – have long accused the central government of neglect, protesting to demand public services prior to the overthrow of Assad last year.

Sharaa is increasingly under pressure to answer for security forces accused of abuses – despite several public pledges to protect Syria’s Druze minority.

Some of the same government-aligned forces deployed to Sweida stand accused of involvement in the massacre of an estimated 1,500 members of Syria’s Alawite minority in March.

A government fact-finding committee due to publish a report into the killings last week failed to do so, with Sharaa under pressure to hold perpetrators accountable.

Qantar feared that even if a new fragile ceasefire holds, supply lines to Sweida remained cut. Residents’ trust in the new government had been supplanted by terror.

“We have no electricity, water, food, medicine or even baby formula – we are under siege,” she said. “If this continues for even a few more days, everything in the shops will be gone. Those who weren’t killed could die of hunger or thirst.”

Additional reporting by Afraa Hashem

Photograph by Omar Haj Kadour/AFP