Sweida massacre worsens: 1,420 killed including women, children

The massacre in Sweida continues to worsen amid ongoing escalation and the collapse of a fragile truce, with heavy shelling, deadly clashes, and field executions. The death toll has risen to 1,420 since July 13, including women and children, amid a complete lack of oversight or action to stop the violence.

In one of the deadliest waves of violence the province has seen since the latest escalation began, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 1,420 people have been killed since July 13, including 250 victims executed in the field, as fragile ceasefire deteriorates daily under bombardment, lawlessness, and the absence of any effective monitoring.

On Saturday evening, western neighborhoods of Sweida city came under sudden anti-aircraft fire from the direction of Kanaker town. Heavy shells landed on Tel al-Hadid and the surrounding area, in what was described as a clear breach of the ceasefire agreement by armed groups from the “Bedouin tribes,” according to the SOHR.

The attack coincided with ongoing looting and destruction in Kanaker for a second consecutive day, without any notable intervention by the Transitional Government’s public security forces, who are deployed in western Sweida countryside.

Security forces also opened fire on a group of civilians trying to reopen the vital Thaala road to access their besieged agricultural lands. Despite repeated appeals from farmers to be allowed to work on their land, security forces continue to block them by force, worsening the already dire humanitarian situation in the area.

ANHA