Death toll from south Syria violence rises to 718, including more than 160 executed, says monitor

By AFP 19 July 2025, 9:39 am

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Tribal and Bedouin fighters in al-Dur village in Syria's Druze-majority southern Sweida governorate as they mobilize amid clashes with Druze gunmen on July 18, 2025. (OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP)

At least 718 people have been killed in Syria’s Sweida province, a war monitor says in an updated toll for nearly a week of violence in the heartland of the Druze minority.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights counts 146 Druze fighters and 245 civilians among the dead since Sunday, 165 of whom “were summarily executed by personnel of the defense and interior ministries.”

The violence also claimed the lives of 287 government troops and 18 Bedouin fighters, plus three Bedouin “who were summarily executed by Druze fighters,” the monitor adds.

Fifteen more government troops were killed in Israeli air strikes.