The Syrian Interior Ministry said on Monday it would investigate a shocking video that showed four men in military fatigues executing an unarmed man in medical scrubs at the main hospital in Sweida, the Druze-dominated city at the heart of recent factional violence.
In the July 16 security camera footage allegedly from Sweida National Hospital, the four killers in fatigues are accompanied by a man wearing a black uniform marked “Interior Ministry.” They are seen confronting a group of people wearing hospital scrubs. All but one of the hospital employees are kneeling or sitting on the floor during the confrontation, some with their hands up in surrender.
The lone civilian who was standing up in the video evidently angered the armed men by refusing to sit or kneel, because a scuffle broke out when two of the armed men tried to force him to sit down. The civilian wrestled one of the men in fatigues to the ground — at which point the others murdered the civilian in cold blood with a volley of rifle and pistol fire.
The final images in the video showed the men in fatigues dragging the dead civilian away, leaving a trail of blood on the floor.
(WARNING – Graphic Images)
July 16 was the day after Syrian government forces arrived in Sweida, ostensibly to restore order after clashes between Bedouin Muslim tribesmen and Druze militia forces. The Druze said government troops actually joined forces with the Bedouin to massacre Druze residents of the area. Israel intervened to protect the Druze by bombing Syrian government troops, who pulled out of the Sweida region on July 17.
A senior doctor at Sweida National Hospital who was present on July 16 told Reuters on Monday that the killers were indeed government soldiers who had stormed the hospital. The murder victim was a civil engineer volunteering at the hospital named Muhammad Bahsas.
According to the senior doctor, the gunmen threatened the rest of the staff after killing Bahsas by saying, “Anyone who speaks up to us will end up like him.”
The gunmen held hospital staff prisoner overnight, insulting them as “pigs” while they ransacked the facility before eventually leaving the following morning.
The violence in Sweida was a major test for the government of Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former al-Qaeda and Islamic State terrorist who led the jihadi alliance that finally managed to overthrow dictator Bashar Assad in December after 14 years of civil war.
Sharaa has been desperately trying to convince Western leaders he can deliver an orderly, inclusive government to Syria. He received a major vote of confidence from President Donald Trump in May when Trump hailed him as a “young, attractive guy” with a “very strong past” who had a “real shot at pulling it together.”
Trump proceeded to lift U.S. sanctions against Syria, imposed when Assad was in power. On July 7, the State department announced it would rescind the terrorist designation applied to Sharaa’s organization, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), in 2018. This was a necessary precondition for the new Syrian government to receive various forms of U.S. foreign aid.
The Druze were one of the groups most fearful of oppression under the new Syrian government, along with Syria’s dwindling Christian community and the Alawites, the small sect of Shia Islam that claimed the Assad dynasty as members. Violence against the Alawites broke out in March, but Sharaa’s government seemed to bring it mostly under control.
Sharaa’s administration claimed Alawites loyal to Assad provoked the March bloodshed by attacking security forces, and likewise claimed Druze militias and vigilantes went too far after their long-simmering feud with the Bedouin exploded.
Sharaa also claimed “outlaw” Druze vigilantes were working with Israel to destabilize the Sweida region, while the Bedouin were merely “rushing to the rescue of the oppressed,” in accordance with their “lofty values and principles.” He did, however, add a bit of scolding for the Bedouin for taking matters into their own hands, instead of trusting Damascus to handle the situation.
On Saturday, Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri called for an international investigation of the hospital video, along with other reports of violence from government forces that occupied Sweida in July. He asked for the perpetrators to be tried at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague, and requested international observers to be deployed in Sweida, to prevent further violence.
The Syrian Interior Ministry released a statement on Monday condemning “the incident at the hospital” and vowing to “directly oversee the investigation to bring those involved to justice.”
“We condemn and denounce this act in the strongest terms, and we affirm that the perpetrators will be held accountable and brought to justice to receive their just punishment, regardless of their affiliations,” the statement said.
Human rights groups, including the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said the Interior Ministry’s promises were insufficient. Instead, they called for a team of United Nations investigators in Sweida.
The SOHR on Monday stressed “the urgent need to investigate this crime and hold all responsible of the attack accountable, while insisting on the importance of ensuring full protection for all medical and health workers.”
On Sunday, the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) expressed alarm at “the sharp escalation of violence in Syria’s Sweida region since mid-July, condemning attacks against civilians and calling for urgent protection and humanitarian access.”
UNSC called for “all parties” to allow “full, safe, rapid, and unhindered humanitarian access” to Sweida, and other communities across Syria, and reminded Sharaa’s government of its duty to protect all Syrians, “regardless of ethnicity or religion.”
“There can be no meaningful recovery in Syria without genuine safety and protection for all Syrians,” the statement said, bluntly reminding Sharaa that his dreams of rebuilding Syria with huge amounts of foreign aid are on the line.
The Security Council also demanded “credible, swift, transparent, impartial, and comprehensive investigations” of the hospital video, and other reports of violence in Sweida.
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