DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Footage from security cameras at a hospital in the city of Sweida in southern Syria published Sunday showed what appears to be the killing of a medical worker by men in military garb.
The video published by activist media collective Suwayda 24 was dated July 16, during intense clashes between militias of the Druze minority community and armed tribal groups and government forces.
In the video, which was also widely shared on social media, a large group of people in scrubs can be seen kneeling on the floor in front of a group of armed men. The armed men grab a man and hit him on the head as if they are going to apprehend him. The man tries to resist by wrestling with one of the gunmen, before he is shot once with an assault rifle and then a second time by another person with a pistol.
A man in a dark jumpsuit with “Internal Security Forces” written on it appears to be guiding the men in camouflage into the hospital.
Another security camera shows a tank stationed outside the facility.
Activist media groups say the gunmen were from the Syrian military and security forces.
A Syrian government official said they could not immediately identify the attackers in the video, and are investigating the incident to try to figure out if they are government-affiliated personnel or gunmen from tribal groups.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not immediately cleared to speak to the media on the matter.
The government has set up a committee tasked with investigating attacks on civilians during the sectarian violence in the country’s south, which is supposed to issue a report within three months.
The incident at the Sweida National Hospital further exacerbates tensions between the Druze minority community and the Syrian government, after clashes in July between Druze and armed Bedouin groups sparked targeted sectarian attacks against them.
The violence has worsened ties between them and Syria’s Islamist-led interim government under President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who hopes to assert full government control and disarm Druze factions.
Though the fighting has largely calmed down, government forces have surrounded the southern city and the Druze have said that little aid is going into the battered city, calling it a siege.
___
Chehayeb reported from Beirut.
