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Horrific Massacres of Druze Civilians in Sweida Documented by the Attackers Themselves
Reuters has verified three harrowing videos showing armed men carrying out execution-style killings of 12 unarmed Druze civilians in southern Syria earlier this July. Shockingly, the videos were filmed by the attackers themselves, dressed in military uniforms, using their mobile phones.
In one video, the gunmen aimed their rifles at three unarmed men, ordering them out onto a sunlit balcony. Just moments before opening fire, one assailant is heard asking his companion, “One minute… do you want to film them?” The execution was deliberately delayed for a few seconds to allow the second fighter to begin recording.
"Let's go! Throw yourself," the attackers shouted at their victims. Two gunmen then opened fire as the victims climbed over the black railing, sending their bodies tumbling onto the street below. The victims were identified as brothers Moaz and Bara Arnos, and their cousin Osama Arnos, all residents of the southern city of Sweida, according to family members who spoke to Reuters.
These executions were part of a series of coordinated attacks carried out by armed men in military attire across three locations in and around Sweida this month, resulting in the deaths of at least 12 unarmed Druze civilians.
In another incident, 60-year-old Munir Al-Rajmeh, a guard at a communal water well, was shot dead by two young fighters after he told them he was Druze, according to his son. Additional footage reviewed by Reuters shows a group of gunmen forcing eight civilians to kneel in a dusty traffic circle before executing them — as confirmed by a relative of the victims.
The videos offer some of the most graphic and detailed evidence to date of the bloodshed that erupted in Sweida in mid-July. What began as clashes between local Druze militias and Bedouin tribal fighters soon escalated with the involvement of government forces dispatched to restore order.
Reuters geolocated each video using visible landmarks and confirmed the timing of the events through interviews with seven friends and relatives of the victims. All those interviewed said they believe Syrian government forces were behind the killings.
The identity of the perpetrators in the videos remains unconfirmed, and Reuters was unable to determine who first uploaded the footage online, which began circulating after July 18.
Syria’s Ministry of Defense issued a statement on July 22 acknowledging reports of a “group of unknown individuals” in military uniform committing “horrific and grave violations” in Sweida — without specifically addressing the execution-style killings of Druze civilians. The ministry pledged to investigate the incidents and to impose the “harshest penalties” on the perpetrators, “even if they belong to the Ministry of Defense.”
On the same day, the Ministry of Interior strongly condemned the circulated videos but did not provide further details on the attackers or the victims.
According to human rights organizations, the death toll from the Sweida violence has exceeded 1,000, most of them Druze, amid a persistent security vacuum following the sudden collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime last December. The new government, led by a former Sunni Islamist faction with roots in global jihadism, disbanded Assad’s army and sought to integrate former opposition factions into a national force — but these forces have struggled to impose stability.
