Syrian war monitor says death toll in Sweida province has risen to 1,120

By AFP 20 July 2025, 9:44 pm

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Unidentified bodies of people killed during sectarian violence the previous week lie in bags outside Sweida National Hospital in southern Syria's predominantly Druze city of Sweida on July 20, 2025. (Shadi Al-Dubaisi/AFP)

The death toll from violence in Sweida province, the heartland of Syria’s Druze minority, has risen to 1,120 since last weekend, a war monitor says, even as a ceasefire appears to be holding.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the dead include 427 Druze fighters and 298 Druze civilians, 194 of whom were “summarily executed by defense and interior ministry personnel.”

They also include 354 government security personnel and 21 Sunni Bedouin, three of them civilians who were “summarily executed by Druze fighters.” Another 15 government troops were killed in Israeli strikes, the Observatory says.