Men walk among the bodies of victims of clashes between Druze fighters and Bedouin tribes and government forces, laid out for identification in the courtyard of a hospital in Sweida, on July 17, 2025. (Credit: Shadi al-Dubaisi/AFP)
"Not a day goes by that I don't think of them. I keep replaying the terror they must have felt that day. It's been a year, and I still haven't found sleep again," testifies Waad Arnous, the sister of Oussama Moaddad Arnous, by phone on July 14. Exactly a year earlier, this 26-year-old dentist and his two cousins Moaz Bachar Arnous, 23, and Bara Bachar Arnous, 20, were forced to jump from the balcony of a building in Sweida while being riddled with bullets by Syrian soldiers, who filmed their crime and shared it on social media. For five days, the province was the scene of massacres and humiliations of Druze civilians perpetrated by government forces and Bedouin tribal fighters and, to a lesser extent, by Druze fighters committing abuses against Bedouin civilians. Take a look back Sweida: Perpetrators document...
"Not a day goes by that I don't think of them. I keep replaying the terror they must have felt that day. It's been a year, and I still haven't found sleep again," testifies Waad Arnous, the sister of Oussama Moaddad Arnous, by phone on July 14. Exactly a year earlier, this 26-year-old dentist and his two cousins Moaz Bachar Arnous, 23, and Bara Bachar Arnous, 20, were forced to jump from the balcony of a building in Sweida while being riddled with bullets by Syrian soldiers, who filmed their crime and shared it on social media. For five days, the province was the scene of massacres and humiliations of Druze civilians perpetrated by government forces and Bedouin tribal fighters and, to a lesser extent, by Druze fighters committing abuses against Bedouin civilians. Take a look back Sweida: Perpetrators document...
