Decomposing bodies pile up on streets after more than 1,000 killed in Syria
As many as 1,017 people have been killed during clashes, executions and Israeli airstrikes in Syria ahead of a ceasefire today.
Mutilated, decomposing bodies are piling on streets in the southern city of Sweida over the last week as hospitals have run out of space to store the dead.
Fighting between factions of the Druze minority group and Bedouin tribes began last week, drawing in a military intervention from Syrian forces.
On the pretence of defending the Druze fighters, Israel unleashed a series of bombardments on Sweida and the Syrian defence ministry in Damascus on Monday.
Amid the secterian violence, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that the death toll has surpassed 1,000 – with almost half of them civilians.
An estimated 336 Druze fighters and 298 civilians from the minority group, as well as 342 government security personnel and 21 Sunni Bedouin, have been killed.
Hospitals in Sweida have been inundated and are running out of medical supplies to treat the injured and space to store the bodied of the dead.
A doctor in Sweida said a local hospital was full of bodies and wounded people from days of violence.
'All the injuries are from bombs, some people with their chests wounded. There are also injuries to limbs from shrapnel,' said Omar Obeid, director of the hospital.
Syrian television reported that corpses are piled up on streets due to lack of space in morgue refrigerators at National Hospital.
It added: 'The health situation is getting worse in Sweida Governorate.
'Hospitals are witnessing a shortage of medical staff and tragic conditions amid a severe shortage of medicines.
Escalating hostilities can only be contained with an agreement to pause violence, protect the innocent, allow humanitarian access, and step back from danger. As of 17:00 Damascus time, all parties have navigated to a pause and cessation of hostilities. The next foundation stone… — Ambassador Tom Barrack (@USAMBTurkiye) July 20, 2025
'Water cut off completely from the National Hospital. Corpses are piling up in the National Hospital garden because the refrigerators cannot accommodate the number of corpses.
'Water cut continues to affect the neighborhoods of Sweida city for the seventh day in a row.
'Operation of bakeries in the city has stopped except for the health bakery, which is not enough to cover the needs of the population.'
Residents reported calm in Sweida today after the Islamist-led government announced that Bedouin fighters had withdrawn from the predominantly Druze city and a US envoy signalled that a deal to end days of fighting was being implemented.
Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa announced that an immediate ceasefire will take place today and urged an immediate end to hostilities.
The interior ministry said internal forces had begun deploying. But there are fears as to how long the deal will remain in place for, despite support from Turkey, Jordan and the US. More Trending
Sharaa said Syria would not be a 'testing ground for partition, secession, or sectarian incitement'.
'The Israeli intervention pushed the country into a dangerous phase that threatened its stability,' he said in a televised speech.
The ceasefire involves the deployment of government security forces to Sweida province, and the opening of humanitarian corridors.
It also includes 'work to secure all detained Bedouin residents in areas controlled by outlaw groups', the interior ministry said, referring to Druze fighters, as well as the exchange of detainees.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE: Dozens more Palestinians 'shot dead by Israeli troops while seeking aid'
MORE: Priest close to Pope Francis injured in Israeli attack on Gaza's only Catholic church
MORE: Ragtag Zohran Mamdani protest likened to Netflix comedy sketch
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
‘Tense calm' returns to Syria's Sweida province after week of deadly violence
An uneasy calm returned to southern Syria's Sweida province on Sunday, after fighters withdrew following a week of violence estimated to have killed more than 1,000 people. Local people told news agencies the area was calm after Syria's Islamist-led government said Bedouin fighters had left the predominantly Druze city. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Sweida had been experiencing 'a cautious calm since the early hours of Sunday morning', but warned of 'the deterioration of the humanitarian situation' including a severe shortage of basic medical supplies. The SOHR reported on Sunday that more than 1,000 people had been killed in armed clashes, bombardment, extrajudicial executions and Israeli airstrikes since the violence in Sweida province began a week ago. The United Nations migration agency said the number of people displaced by the violence had risen to more than 128,000. One local resident, dentist Kenan Azzam, told Reuters on Sunday morning the situation was one of 'a tense calm' but people were still struggling with a lack of water and electricity. 'The hospitals are a disaster and out of service, and there are still so many dead and wounded,' he said. Agence France-Presse correspondents on the outskirts of Sweida city reported there were no sounds of fighting, adding humanitarian convoys were preparing to enter the Druze-majority town. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent humanitarian organisation announced it was sending 32 trucks to Sweida loaded with food, medicine, water, fuel and other aid, after the fighting left the province with power cuts and shortages. The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency said the health ministry was also sending a convoy of trucks. The violence was triggered by a dispute between a Bedouin tribesman and a member of the Druze, who are a minority in wider Syria, which prompted government forces to intervene. Druze fighters resisted their entry into the province and violence escalated, turning into days of terror for local people. In response, Israel, which has vowed to protect the Druze community, launched airstrikes on Syria's defence ministry in Damascus and dozens of military targets in the south of the country. A ceasefire agreement between Syria and Israel had been announced by the US early on Saturday to prevent further Israeli military intervention. Early on Sunday, the US stepped up calls for an end to the fighting. 'All factions must immediately lay down their arms, cease hostilities, and abandon cycles of tribal vengeance,' the US special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, wrote on X. 'Syria stands at a critical juncture – peace and dialogue must prevail – and prevail now.' A few hours earlier, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, issued a warning to Syria's new government, whose forces have been accused by Druze factions of committing abuses, including summary executions, when they entered Sweida earlier in the week. Rubio wrote on X: 'If authorities in Damascus want to preserve any chance of achieving a unified, inclusive and peaceful Syria free of Isis [Islamic State] and of Iranian control they must help end this calamity by using their security forces to prevent Isis and any other violent jihadists from entering the area and carrying out massacres. And they must hold accountable and bring to justice anyone guilty of atrocities including those in their own ranks.' Two members of the government forces posted sectarian hate speech against Druze, according to private social media seen by the Guardian's correspondent in Beirut. One posted a video of him and two other soldiers driving through Sweida laughing as he said: 'We are on our way to distribute aid,' while brandishing a machete to the camera. He filmed himself inside a house in Sweida ripping a picture of Druze spiritual leaders off a wall and trampling it with his boots. The last week has been the worst outbreak of violence since March, when 1,500 mostly Alawite citizens were massacred in revenge for a failed attack by supporters of the ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad, who came from the sect. The second round of sectarian violence has tempered international hopes for the new Syrian government, which came to power last December after the sudden fall of the Assad regime. Western governments, the US, the UK and the EU, lifted sanctions in an effort to aid Syria's battered economy and economic reconstruction, after 13 years of civil war and repression by the Assad regime, which killed more than half a million people, leaving 90% of the population in poverty. The EU said on Saturday it was 'appalled by the hundreds of victims' of the recent violence, including that 'reportedly perpetrated by several armed groups against unarmed civilians'. In a statement, the EU foreign service urged 'all parties to immediately stop all acts of violence, to protect all civilians without distinction, and to take immediate steps to prevent incitement and sectarian discourse'. The EU also called on 'Israel and all other foreign actors to fully respect Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity'. Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, on Saturday announced a ceasefire in Sweida and renewed his promise to protect Syria's ethnic and religious minorities. Sharaa, who was more sympathetic to the Bedouins, had tried to appeal to the Druze community while remaining critical of the militias. He later urged the Bedouins to leave the city, saying they 'cannot replace the role of the state in handling the country's affairs and restoring security'. The interior ministry said overnight that Sweida city was 'evacuated of all tribal fighters, and clashes within the city's neighbourhoods were halted'. A spokesperson for Syria's tribal and clan council told Al Jazeera late on Saturday that fighters had left the city 'in response to the call of the presidency and the terms of the agreement'.
Metro
3 days ago
- Metro
Decomposing bodies pile up on streets after more than 1,000 killed in Syria
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video As many as 1,017 people have been killed during clashes, executions and Israeli airstrikes in Syria ahead of a ceasefire today. Mutilated, decomposing bodies are piling on streets in the southern city of Sweida over the last week as hospitals have run out of space to store the dead. Fighting between factions of the Druze minority group and Bedouin tribes began last week, drawing in a military intervention from Syrian forces. On the pretence of defending the Druze fighters, Israel unleashed a series of bombardments on Sweida and the Syrian defence ministry in Damascus on Monday. Amid the secterian violence, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that the death toll has surpassed 1,000 – with almost half of them civilians. An estimated 336 Druze fighters and 298 civilians from the minority group, as well as 342 government security personnel and 21 Sunni Bedouin, have been killed. Hospitals in Sweida have been inundated and are running out of medical supplies to treat the injured and space to store the bodied of the dead. A doctor in Sweida said a local hospital was full of bodies and wounded people from days of violence. 'All the injuries are from bombs, some people with their chests wounded. There are also injuries to limbs from shrapnel,' said Omar Obeid, director of the hospital. Syrian television reported that corpses are piled up on streets due to lack of space in morgue refrigerators at National Hospital. It added: 'The health situation is getting worse in Sweida Governorate. 'Hospitals are witnessing a shortage of medical staff and tragic conditions amid a severe shortage of medicines. Escalating hostilities can only be contained with an agreement to pause violence, protect the innocent, allow humanitarian access, and step back from danger. As of 17:00 Damascus time, all parties have navigated to a pause and cessation of hostilities. The next foundation stone… — Ambassador Tom Barrack (@USAMBTurkiye) July 20, 2025 'Water cut off completely from the National Hospital. Corpses are piling up in the National Hospital garden because the refrigerators cannot accommodate the number of corpses. 'Water cut continues to affect the neighborhoods of Sweida city for the seventh day in a row. 'Operation of bakeries in the city has stopped except for the health bakery, which is not enough to cover the needs of the population.' Residents reported calm in Sweida today after the Islamist-led government announced that Bedouin fighters had withdrawn from the predominantly Druze city and a US envoy signalled that a deal to end days of fighting was being implemented. Syrian interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa announced that an immediate ceasefire will take place today and urged an immediate end to hostilities. The interior ministry said internal forces had begun deploying. But there are fears as to how long the deal will remain in place for, despite support from Turkey, Jordan and the US. More Trending Sharaa said Syria would not be a 'testing ground for partition, secession, or sectarian incitement'. 'The Israeli intervention pushed the country into a dangerous phase that threatened its stability,' he said in a televised speech. The ceasefire involves the deployment of government security forces to Sweida province, and the opening of humanitarian corridors. It also includes 'work to secure all detained Bedouin residents in areas controlled by outlaw groups', the interior ministry said, referring to Druze fighters, as well as the exchange of detainees. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Dozens more Palestinians 'shot dead by Israeli troops while seeking aid' MORE: Priest close to Pope Francis injured in Israeli attack on Gaza's only Catholic church MORE: Ragtag Zohran Mamdani protest likened to Netflix comedy sketch
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Telegraph
‘They executed him then called his wife to brag': Inside the Druze city ravaged by militias
Dr Talat Amer, a surgeon at Sweida National Hospital in southern Syria, worked tirelessly for three days as bombs fell and the building came under siege from government and militia forces. On the fourth day of fighting in the Druze-majority city, Dr Amer was shot in the head as he tried to return to work. 'He was dressed in scrubs and they executed him. Then they called his wife on his phone and bragged about it,' Sami, a surgeon at the hospital, told The Telegraph. Witnesses reported it was regime forces wearing Islamic State badges on their military fatigues. The fighting that has consumed the region started on July 13 as a local dispute between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes but quickly escalated into deadly clashes. Syrian government forces deployed to the region to quell the violence instead became embroiled in it, drawing in Israeli intervention. Syrian soldiers, many of whom came from former jihadist ranks, are accused of aligning with other militias and attacking Druze fighters and civilians, carrying out a bloody rampage across the city. After six days of terror, the death toll is estimated to be more than 900, but confirmation will take time as bodies are recovered and identified. Despite an 'immediate and comprehensive' US-brokered ceasefire being declared between Syria and Israel on Saturday in Sweida – it is failing to hold. Multiple witnesses say militias are still attacking villages and the city. Sami, who is currently hiding with his family and speaking under a pseudonym for fear of retribution, was working at the hospital on Tuesday when he said government forces attacked. 'We saw the soldiers and the bombs were landing on the hospital, we hid but then tried to continue treating patients. Then we lost electricity and water,' he recounted. He was not there on Wednesday when Syrian soldiers were alleged to have detained the doctors and nurses in the operating rooms. 'They killed a maintenance man and told the doctors they would be executed at 6pm.' The soldiers were forced to withdraw and his colleagues escaped, Sami said, but he still does not know how many staff were killed during the attack on the hospital. Videos filmed inside the building show corpses piled up in hallways, blood-soaked floors, rooms stacked with body bags and a chaotic makeshift morgue set up outside. When Sami reached the hospital on Thursday, passing civilian bodies littering the roads nearby, he found a Syrian tank at its front entrance – and more bodies. 'It looked like a massacre,' he said. 'The hospital was partly destroyed, there were a lot of bodies put on top of each other. We still do not know who is dead. I haven't been able to make contact with all of my colleagues.' The surgeon estimates that there are 400 bodies at the hospital. Most are piled outside in the back yard because the morgue ran out of space. 'I think they will reach 1,000 soon. We do not have time to identify them or bury them' he said. Syria's leadership has vowed to punish those who committed 'heinous acts' against Druze civilians, but its control appears shaky and Sweida's residents fear authorities are unable to provide security. Ahmed al-Sharaa, the Syrian president has vowed to protect the Druze minority, but his forces have been accused of executing them in the street. Nawaf Al-Shabli, a medical doctor who lives on the outskirts of Sweida, described feeling powerless as he heard that his friends and colleagues might be being killed inside the National Hospital. He is trapped inside his own village on the outskirts of Sweida, which he said is still under attack from neighbouring Bedouin tribes and Arab militia groups. 'You cannot imagine the horrors,' Dr al-Shabli, who is also a prominent peace activist, told The Telegraph. 'These are my friends, they were so innocent. All the world will be shocked when it comes to light what happened,' he said. Dr al-Shabli has been distributing food and aid to his neighbours. 'I am trying to help, but there is nothing, no electricity, no clean water, no medicine. All the villages have been burnt around us.' When the violence broke out last week, he said many villagers fled to Sweida, where they believed they would be safe. Some were killed, he said, and those that returned are traumatised. 'They came from all directions, all roads, with all resources and heavy weaponry. They wanted to destroy the Druze, they oppose our beliefs.' The Druze, whose religion is rooted in Islam but do not identify as Muslim have faced a history of persecution. The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly one million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the military. In Syria, the Druze have been divided over how to deal with the country's new leaders, with some advocating for integrating into the new system while others have remained suspicious of the authorities in Damascus and pushed for an autonomous Druze region. 'We are peaceful,' he said. 'We do not usually fight, we want to help others. Our saying is to 'hurt no one, love all, serve all'.' Inside the city, residents are pleading for help from the outside community, saying that aid is not reaching them as militias have blocked all the roads. 'The situation is very bad, this is a disaster, we are asking for a humanitarian corridor to open up,' Kinan Azzam, a dentist who lives in the east of Sweida city, told The Telegraph. He described seeing bodies all over the streets and hearing of Druze women and children kidnapped, while parents were killed in their homes in front of their children. On Friday, Mr Azzam learnt that his friend, an engineer, had been taken by regime forces and killed. 'He was a very good person, they kidnapped him and killed him in a bad way and left him.' Now, he said the fresh ceasefire agreement – the second this week after an earlier agreement on Wednesday quickly collapsed – is being broken continuously. 'Please we need help, time is running out, why isn't anyone helping us?' Burcu Ozcelik, a Middle East security analyst at the Rusi think tank, told The Telegraph: 'The ceasefire remains extremely fragile.' She said a range of armed groups, operating beyond the control of the government and driven by divergent agendas, are converging on the area 'in anticipation of renewed conflict'. Ms Ozcelik added: 'This escalation must be urgently contained.' There have also been reports of attacks on the small Bedouin communities, – who are predominantly Sunni Muslim – in Sweida and what Syrian media outlets called massacres by 'outlaw groups'. The deadly violence, the worst in this corner of Syria since the height of the country's nearly 14 year civil war, has underscored the challenge the new Islamist regime is facing stabilising the country and exerting centralised rule. The interim government, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, has tried and so far failed to unite Syria's diverse religious and ethnic factions since the ousting of Bashar al-Assad in December. The former al-Qaeda leader turned statesman has promised tolerance and acceptance, authorities have been accused repeatedly of trampling over the rights of the country's diverse minorities. Col (res) Hamada Ganem, a Druze former commander of the IDF's Northern Brigade in the Gaza Strip, questioned why the Druze militias would heed their de-facto control of Sweida to the government. 'Why would they put down their arms when they cannot trust the unstable regime to protect them? Everyone takes the law into their own hands and the Druze are suffering,' he told The Telegraph. 'The Druze want peace, they want to be part of Syria, but they need protection. Al-Sharaa speaks two languages: one of peace and accountability, while the other is spoken by his forces that attack the Druze.'
