SOHR records 429 summary executions in Sweida during July clashes

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
13 Aug 2025 23:46

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 429 people, including women, children, and medical staff, were executed in the field during July's Sweida clashes involving Druze groups, Bedouin tribes, and Syrian government forces.

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Residents walk by burned-out cars and a military vehicle following last week's sectarian clashes in the Druze-majority town of Sweida, Syria, Friday, July 25, 2025 (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Wednesday that it has allegedly documented the names of 28 Syrian citizens, including 12 women, who were executed in the field by members of the Defense and Interior Ministries during the July Sweida massacre.

This brings the number of summary executions in Sweida since July 13 to 429 people, among them 38 women, 14 children, and elderly individuals. The victims include 20 members of the medical staff at Sweida National Hospital, shot dead by personnel of the Defense and Interior Ministries. SOHR noted that these killings were part of a broader pattern of systematic, identity-based executions across the country since the collapse of the former regime.

The total number of victims documented by name in the recent Sweida clashes has risen to 1,653, including 20 healthcare workers from the Sweida Health Directorate killed on July 16, 2025, during an armed attack on the National Hospital. The clashes pitted Druze groups against Bedouin tribesmen backed by the Syrian Defense and Interior Ministries, resulting in hundreds of deaths before a July 19 presidential announcement of a “comprehensive and immediate” ceasefire.

According to SOHR’s nationwide figures released on August 7, nearly 10,000 people, 7,449 of them civilians, including 396 children and 541 women, have been killed across Syria since al-Sharaa took power in December 2024. Field executions account for over 2,500 of these deaths, with the deadliest month being March 2025. The Sweida massacre stands among the most notorious incidents, underscoring the country’s spiraling violence, widespread lawlessness, and the absence of meaningful civilian protection.

SOHR has renewed its call for accountability for all perpetrators, an end to sectarian incitement, and immediate measures to protect civilians, warning that such atrocities deepen societal divisions and obstruct any path toward a just political settlement.