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Syrian Observatory: 1,048 Druze Killed Since the Fall of the Assad Regime
Since the fall of the Syrian regime on December 8, 2024, the country has entered a transitional period marked by significant security, political, and humanitarian complexities. Relations between the new authorities and several Syrian regions and communities—particularly Suwayda province—have remained strained and defined by a lack of trust.
The events in Sahnaya, Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, and Jaramana in May 2025 were among the most significant tests of the relationship between the new authorities and the Druze community. The areas witnessed clashes and killings that affected civilians and raised fears of a return to violence based on sectarian identity.
According to documentation by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 36 people were killed in those events, including 18 civilians. Fourteen others were subjected to summary executions in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya. Three civilians, including a child, were also killed as a result of shelling and clashes, while one Druze civilian died after the village of Rassas in the Suwayda countryside was hit by a mortar shell.
As tensions spread to Suwayda province in July 2025, large-scale clashes erupted following a series of kidnapping incidents and confrontations. The violence later expanded with the involvement of government forces, tribal groups, and local Druze factions.
The death toll from the Suwayda events reached 985, including 162 civilians—among them 21 children and 51 women. Five of the victims were found at Al-Mujtahid Hospital. The toll also included 823 members of the Druze community, including 79 women, 15 children and elderly people, as well as 20 medical staff members at the Suwayda National Hospital.
Human rights reports also documented field executions allegedly carried out by members of the Ministries of Defense and Interior, in addition to other violations, including extrajudicial killings, torture, abductions, sexual violence, the destruction of property, and the displacement of residents.
The losses were not limited to mass violence. Human rights organizations documented the killing of 19 members of the Druze community in individual attacks and killings during 2025, while eight others were killed in similar incidents in 2026.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the number of unarmed Druze civilians killed since the fall of the regime through 2026 reached 1,048. The victims included those killed in the Sahnaya, Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, and Jaramana events, the Suwayda clashes, and individual attacks.
These figures reflect not only the scale of the human losses, but also the depth of the crisis affecting the Druze community during the transitional period. The crisis has been compounded by the unresolved cases of missing and abducted people, the consequences of displacement and destruction, and declining trust between Suwayda residents and the transitional government.
Security, justice, accountability, and determining the fate of missing people remain among the community’s foremost demands, amid fears that sectarian identity could become a factor determining the fate of civilians.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has called for independent and transparent investigations into the violations committed during the Suwayda events, as well as accountability for all those responsible, regardless of their affiliations. It also stressed the need to refer perpetrators of killings and other violations to justice, emphasizing that accountability must include all parties and must not be selective or collective.
The Observatory affirmed that achieving justice requires pursuing those responsible for crimes and preventing impunity, while safeguarding the rights of victims and their families. Such measures, it said, would contribute to establishing lasting stability based on the rule of law and accountability for all, without exception.
