By Deniz Uyar, Monica Naime and Pola Grzanka
July 29 (Reuters) – The fighters in military-style uniforms pointed their rifles at the three unarmed men and ordered them out onto a sunny balcony, before barking at them to pause. “One minute. You want to film them?” one of the attackers asked his comrade.
The unfolding horror, which was already being filmed by one gunman on his cellphone, was delayed for a few moments to allow a second fighter to start capturing the events.
“Let’s go! Throw yourself over,” the gunmen yelled at their victims, members of Syria’s minority Druze faith.
Two of the attackers shot the men one by one as they clambered over the black railing before their bodies tumbled to the street below, according to the footage circulating on social media which was reviewed by Reuters.
The victims were Moaz Arnous, his brother Baraa Arnous and their cousin, Osama Arnous, according to a family friend and another cousin who both told Reuters the video showed the three being killed at their home in the southern city of Sweida on July 16.
The deaths were among 12 execution-style killings of unarmed Druze civilians carried out at three sites in and around Sweida this month by gunmen wearing military fatigues, according to the footage of the attacks, which was filmed by the killers themselves or people accompanying them and verified by Reuters.
Another video shows Mounir al-Rajma, a 60-year-old guard at a communal water well, being gunned down by two young fighters after telling them he is Druze, his son Wiam told Reuters. Other footage shows a group of fighters forcing eight civilians to kneel in the dust of a roundabout before shooting them dead, according to a friend and a relative of some of those victims.
The videos provide some of the most detailed depictions yet of the bloodshed that erupted in Sweida province in mid-July, initially between local Druze militia and Bedouin tribal fighters and subsequently government forces sent to restore order. The violence killed hundreds of mostly Druze people, according to Reuters reporting and two monitoring groups.
Reuters was able to use visible landmarks in each video to geo-locate the incidents. The events depicted and their dates were verified through interviews with seven relatives and friends of the victims. All said they believed Syrian government forces killed their loved ones.
The news agency could not identify the attackers in the videos, which were not time-stamped, or determine who first posted them online. The pieces of footage began appearing online after July 18, a review of social media posts found.
The media offices of the Syrian defence and interior ministries didn’t respond to questions from Reuters on the filmed attacks.
Syria’s defense ministry said on July 22 that it was aware of reports that an “unknown group” wearing military fatigues committed “shocking and gross violations” in Sweida. It didn’t mention execution-style killings targeting Druze people.
The ministry vowed to investigate the abuses, identify those responsible and impose “maximum penalties” on perpetrators, “even if they are affiliated with the ministry of defense.”
On the same day, the interior ministry condemned “in the strongest terms the circulating videos showing field executions carried out by unidentified individuals in the city of Sweida”.
RIGHTS GROUP: AT LEAST 1,000 DEAD
Syria has been plagued by bouts of sectarian strife since the sudden fall of President Bashar al-Assad and his police state in December last year after 14 years of war. The new government, led by a former Sunni Islamist group that has its roots in global jihad, dissolved Assad’s army and sought to integrate dozens of former rebel factions into a national army, but those forces have struggled to fill the security vacuum.
Sweida province is predominantly populated by the Druze community, a distant offshoot of Islam that comprises about 3% of Syria’s pre-war population of 24 million. The atrocities there came four months after a spree of killings against the Alawite minority, with armed factions affiliated to the new government killing hundreds of people in coastal settlements.
The Sweida unrest began on July 13 when longstanding local tensions over land and resources in the province escalated into clashes between local Druze militia and Bedouin tribal fighters, who like government forces largely adhere to the country’s majority Sunni faith.
The violence worsened significantly after the Syrian military was deployed to the province on July 14 to quell the clashes and entered Sweida city itself on July 15, according to residents, two war monitors and reporters on the ground.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights said 1,013 people have been killed in the bloodshed since July 13, including 47 women, 26 children and six medical personnel. The group said victims were mainly Druze, adding that it wasn’t clear how many were fighters or civilians. The network said the vast majority died after the army’s arrival led to a sharp increase in fighting.
The organization’s head, Fadel Abdulghany, told Reuters it had documented execution-style killings by Syrian troops, Bedouin fighters and Druze groups.
A forensic pathologist in the city of Sweida, who requested anonymity to speak about sensitive matters, told Reuters he had examined 502 bodies that had been brought to the Sweida National Hospital during this month’s violence.
One was decapitated and two, including a teenage girl, had their throats slit. Most of the others suffered from gunshot wounds inflicted at close range, he said.
Reuters could not independently verify the numbers or specific atrocities recounted by the Syrian network and the pathologist.
‘ARE YOU MUSLIM OR DRUZE?’
The son of Rajma, the 60-year-old water well guard, identified his father in a video verified by Reuters as having been filmed on July 15 outside the Muhammad Salih Nasr School in the town of Thaalah, less than a mile from their home.
Rajma is seen sitting on the steps of the school’s entrance as at least three young rifle-toting men in military fatigues are heard repeatedly screaming at him, “Are you Muslim or Druze?” The exchange is filmed by someone standing directly next to the fighters and it is unclear if the person is also armed.
When the older man answers, “I’m Syrian”, one fighter responds: “What does Syrian mean? Muslim or Druze?”
Rajma says: “My brother, I’m Druze.”
Three of the fighters immediately open fire.
“This is the fate of every dog among you, you pigs,” one of them says.
In another video verified by Reuters, a group of seven fighters in military fatigues carrying rifles are seen guiding eight men in civilian clothes down a sidewalk. Based on the shop signs and road layout, Reuters identified the street as lying just west of Tishreen Square in the heart of Sweida city.
The only visible insignia on the fatigues is a small black patch on the right arm of one of the fighters bearing the Islamic declaration of faith in a design popularized by the Islamic State group. Reuters reporters have also seen some soldiers at checkpoints in government areas wearing them.
Syria’s defense and interior ministries didn’t respond to questions on whether their forces wear the patches.
The Islamic State did not mention Sweida in any of their posts on their social media propaganda channels, including in the period after July 13. Reuters couldn’t reach a representative for the group.
A few seconds into the video, the fighter filming turns his phone camera around to his own face: He’s a bearded man dressed in military fatigues, with a red bandana wrapped around his head and the butt of a rifle visible across his chest.
The eight victims walk in single file, each resting his hands on the shoulders of the man in front. The last man in line, wearing a tan shirt and sandals, was identified by a friend who watched the video as Hosam Saraya, a 35-year-old Syrian-American citizen. The friend said the older man directly in front of him in line was Hosam’s father, and the next man was Hosam’s brother Kareem. Most of the others were from the same extended family, the friend added.
Dima Saraya, the wife of Ali Saraya – another of the men in line – told Reuters that armed men in military fatigues had surrounded the apartment building where the extended Saraya family lived west of Tishreen Square on July 16 and demanded that the men inside surrender themselves, promising to question them for a few hours and return them home safely.
U.S. Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma confirmed that Hosam, who had lived in Oklahoma, “was tragically executed alongside other members of his family in Syria.” He didn’t give further details.
A separate video shows the same eight unarmed men kneeling in the dirt of a roundabout in Tishreen Square. Reuters was able to verify the video’s location from the statue in the roundabout and a tower block visible directly behind it.
The same friend identified Hosam, his brother and his father among the kneeling men in the second video. At least two fighters fire their rifles directly at the kneeling group, from close proximity and for at least seven seconds.
The kneeling men crumple into the dirt and lie motionless as the armed men yell, “God is great.”
(Reporting by Deniz Uyar, Monica Naime and Pola Grzanka; Editing by Pravin Char)
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