“There are bodies everywhere”: the dramatic situation in Suweida, the capital of the Druzos in Syria

Violence has made Rima and their neighbors feel abandoned and scared in their own houses, while listening to the bullets and projectiles that resonate outside.

The prolonged tensions between the Drusa and Beduina tribes of Suweida exploded in mortal sectarian clashes on Sunday, after the alleged kidnapping of a Druso merchant on the highway that leads to the capital, Damascus.

While the fighting extended to other parts of the southern province, the government of the interim president Ahmed al Sharaa – who headed the overthrow of the Bashar al Assad regime by the rebels led by Islamists in December – announced that it would deploy the forces of the Ministry of Interior and Defense to “restore stability.”

Since the fall of Assad, some local Druss leaders have rejected the presence of security forces in the city of Suweida. When government forces were deployed on Tuesday, clashes intensified.

The government forces to attack both Druss and Civil Combatters were accused, which led the Israeli army to intervene with a series of air attacks that, they said, they intended to protect the drusites.

Meanwhile, to Rima the lack of Internet and electricity made it difficult for him to follow the development of events. The only thing he knew with certainty was what he saw from his window: corpses and burned buildings.

Syrian state media have also summoned the authorities already saying that “groups outside the law” carried out “massacres” and other crimes against Bedouin and civil combatants.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, an observation group based in the United Kingdom, declared that it has documented the death of at least 594 people since Sunday, including 154 Druss civilians, of which 83 were executed by the government forces, and three members of Beduine tribes that were executed by Drusos fighters.

Nayef, a Druso whose name we have changed, also faced horrible scenes in Suweida.

“We are collecting corpses from the streets. We find abandoned corpses outside the houses for two or three days,” he told the BBC in a telephone interview.

Despite being an employee of the government, Nayef lashed out with disbelief against what he considers brutality of government forces within the city.

“The neighborhoods assaulted, selecting the houses that seemed rich. They looted them and then burned them. They sprayed with bullets unarmed civilians.”

The videos that circulate on social networks seem to corroborate Nayef's accusations.

The images shared on Facebook on Wednesday afternoon, they show at least half a dozen camouflage dresses shooting with real ammunition against a group of kneeling residents on a sidewalk.

The UN Human Rights Office claimed to have documented the death of at least 13 people at the hands of armed men related to the Government who opened fire against a family reunion on Tuesday.

The same day, according to reports, they executed six men near their homes.

While raining bullets and projectiles, the inhabitants of Suweida wondered when the help would come.

Rima said he saw how security forces and foreign combatants entered his neighborhood and later shot his neighbor in front of his mother.

“Is this the army and security forces that were supposed to come to protect us?” They have stolen people's livelihood. Those who died were young and unarmed. “

Other testimonies that we heard supported Rima's statement. The people we talked to said that most of the combatants who entered Suweida and attacked civilians seemed to be Islamists.

A woman heard the fighters shout “Allahu Akbar” (God is the greatest) in his building, calling “infidels” and “pigs” to the Druss and say they were there to kill them.

Some of these combatants published their videos humiliating the men of Suweida, even cutting or shaving the mustaches of the Druss sheikhs.

Bigotes are a symbol of Drusa religious identity.

The BBC contacted the Syrian government to know its official position on this matter, but so far has not received an answer.

In a televised speech early on Thursday, the interim president Sharaa promised to demand responsibilities to the authors and promised to make the protection of the Druzos a “priority.”

“We are eager to account for those who transgressed and abused our Druso people, because they are under the protection and responsibility of the State,” he said.

He then blamed “groups outside the law”, stating that their leaders “rejected dialogue for many months.”

For many, the promise of protection seemed a already seen.

It looked like the message that the president launched when the governmental forces and the allied Islamist combatants carried out mortal reprisals against civilians from another religious minority, the alauíes, in response to the attacks of the loyal to Assad in the coastal region in March.

A committee was created to investigate those violations, but has not yet presented their conclusions.

Nayef's stories and other people had many similarities with what happened on the coast in March.

“There is a total lack of confidence in the government,” Nayef said. “They limit themselves to speaking. They say beautiful things about freedoms, the documentation of violations and accountability, but they are all lies.”

Many Suweida residents claim that this last episode of sectarian violence will have lasting effects.

“If it weren't for Israel's bombings, we couldn't talk to you today,” a woman told the BBC.

However, some also criticized Israeli air attacks and their claim that he acted to protect the drusites.

Nayef said: “Nobody wants Israel. We are patriotic people. We were the first to adopt patriotism. You should not doubt our loyalty and patriotism.”

* With additional information from Samantha Granville in Beirut

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