Nearly 718 people have been killed in Syria’s Sweida province over the past week in what is being described as one of the bloodiest outbreaks of violence in the region in recent years. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights updated the death toll on Saturday, revealing the scale of the clashes that have engulfed the Druze heartland since last Sunday.
According to the UK-based war monitor, the fatalities include:
- 146 Druze fighters
- 245 civilians, including 165 people “summarily executed by personnel of the defence and interior ministries”
- 287 government troops
- 18 Bedouin fighters
- 3 Bedouin civilians “summarily executed by Druze fighters”
- 15 additional government troops killed in Israeli airstrikes
The situation in Sweida — a region that has mostly remained on the periphery of the broader Syrian conflict — has sharply deteriorated amid escalating tensions between local militias, Bedouin tribes, and government forces.
While the exact trigger remains unclear, the violence has quickly spiraled into retaliatory killings, summary executions, and civilian casualties, sparking concern among international observers and human rights organizations.
The Observatory emphasized that summary executions on both sides have worsened the already dire humanitarian situation in the province.