The toll from a week of bloody clashes in south Syria’s Druze-majority Sweida province has passed 1,300, a monitor said Tuesday, as it continued to confirm deaths that occurred before a weekend ceasefire took effect.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead included 833 Druze, 533 of them fighters and 300 civilians, 196 of whom were “summarily executed by defence 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 strikes, it added.
The week of clashes which began on July 13 initially involved Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes, but government forces intervened on the side of the latter, according to witnesses, experts and the Observatory.
A ceasefire took effect on Sunday, after Bedouin and tribal fighters withdrew from Sweida city and Druze groups regained control, while government forces deployed in parts of the province.
The United Nations said Tuesday it was relocating its staff and their families from the city, and that it had handed over a new aid shipment to the Syrian Red Crescent destined for Sweida.
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© Agence France-Presse
