Syria launches probes into extrajudicial killings in Sweida

DAMASCUS, Syria (AFP) — Syria said on Tuesday that it had launched investigations into reported extrajudicial killings in the country’s Druze heartland, promising to punish perpetrators including any government-affiliated personnel after a week of sectarian bloodshed.

The violence, which began on 13 July and ended with a weekend ceasefire, started with clashes between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes but soon escalated, killing more than 1,300 people, mostly Druze, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

Witnesses, Druze factions and the Observatory have accused government forces of siding with the Bedouin and committing abuses including summary executions when they entered Sweida last week.

The interior ministry on Tuesday condemned “in the strongest terms the videos circulating showing field executions carried out by unidentified individuals in Sweida.”

For days, brutal videos on social media have appeared to show the execution of people in civilian clothing.

“These acts are serious crimes punishable by law with most severe penalties,” the ministry statement said.

Authorities “have begun an urgent investigation to identify those involved” and arrest them, it continued, adding that “nobody is above the law.”

According to the Observatory, the dead included 533 Druze fighters and 300 civilians from the religious minority, 196 of whom were “summarily executed by defense and interior ministry personnel.”

The toll also includes 423 government security personnel, and 35 Sunni Bedouin, three of them civilians who were “summarily executed by Druze fighters,” according to the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

Another 15 government personnel were killed in Israeli air strikes launched in support of the Druze, it added.