ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Doctors from a hospital in Syria’s southern province of Suwayda recount to Rudaw the moment they were raided by state-affiliated security forces in recent days during the sectarian clashes between Druze militants and Sunni tribal fighters.
The violence left at least 1,300 people dead since it started on July 13, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). It ended with a ceasefire over the weekend.
Inside the Suwayda National Hospital - the province’s main medical center - doctors were working tirelessly to prepare bodies for burial.
A doctor told Rudaw that they were in the emergency section of the hospital when it came under attack recently.
State-affiliated “General Security forces entered the room, forced everyone out with Kalashnikovs and made them kneel, took photos, and sent video recordings. They said, 'You Druze are pigs and must sit here.'” said the doctor, adding that the forces shot a volunteer medical staff dead after cursing him.
Another doctor at the hospital warned of the risk of diseases spreading due to bodies having remained on the ground for several days.
“The hospital is destroyed… The hospital is destroyed. Now, everything in the hospital is broken, due to shelling and bullets. We don't have medical supplies available. No aid has reached us from outside.”
Damascus-affiliated forces have been accused of summary executions.
