More than 300 people have been killed since Sunday in violence in Soueida, a city in southern Syria in Druze, said the Syrian Human Rights Observatory (OSDH) on Wednesday. A previous assessment reported 248 dead.
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According to the OSDH, 69 Druzes fighters and 40 Druzes civilians were killed, “27 of them executed summarily” by members of the government forces.
In addition, 165 members of government forces and 18 Bedouin fighters were also killed, according to the NGO, as well as 10 members of the government’s security forces in Israeli strikes.
AFP
Israel, which claims to want to protect the Druze community installed in this region, promised Damascus “painful blows”.
The Israeli Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, assured that the army “would forcefully operate” in the Soueida region “to eliminate the forces that attacked the Druzes until their full withdrawal”.
The Druze community is an esoteric minority from Islam, also established in Israel.
The violence had broken out on Sunday between Druzes and Bedouin groups in southern Syria. Syrian government forces then dispatched reinforcements on Tuesday to end the clashes.