SWEIDA, Syria (Reuters) -Hatem Radwan stared at the bloodstained floor and cushions in the Al-Radwan guest house in Syria’s Druze city of Sweida, still wondering how he survived the shooting spree more than a week ago that killed his relatives and friends.
“I’m not sleeping. I wish I would have died; it would have been better for me,” the 70-year-old told Reuters, saying two of his sons-in-law and his daughter’s father-in-law were killed when armed men stormed into the guesthouse on July 16.
Hundreds of people were killed in days of sectarian violence in Syria’s Sweida province, where government forces were sent to quell clashes between Druze factions and Bedouin tribes.
Syria’s defence ministry on July 22 said it would investigate reports of an “unknown group” in military fatigues committing “shocking and gross violations” in Sweida, and hold the perpetrators accountable.
The interior ministry condemned “the circulating videos showing field executions carried out by unidentified individuals in the city of Sweida,” and also pledged to conduct a probe.
Residents, monitoring groups and reporters in the province said the violence intensified after security forces deployed, reporting several cases of execution-style killings.
One of the most gruesome was the Al-Radwan guesthouse.
Radwan said armed men entered the guesthouse on July 15 as he was gathered there with Druze friends and relatives. The fighters smashed up the room, took the keys of a car that was parked outside and turned to leave.
Radwan said he then heard one fighter say, “let’s kill them so they don’t recognise us.” He collapsed onto the floor as the shooting started.
GUNSHOT WOUNDS TO THE CHEST
“I don’t know whether it was a bullet or what that hit me, but I fell down. I thought, ‘it’s over, I’m going to die,'” he told Reuters.
A video posted online and verified by Reuters as being in the Al-Radwan guest house showed more than a dozen bodies, several with gunshot wounds to the chest, slumped over one another. Reuters could not verify the date the video was filmed.
Reuters reporters at the guest house on Friday saw bullet holes in the walls and bloodstains on red-striped cushions and on the concrete floor.
Nearby, another family was still grieving their loss. Members of the Saraya family spoke in hushed tones in their home, its walls pockmarked by bullet holes. Older women dressed in black except for white headscarves sat in silence.
Seven of their relatives were killed with an eighth friend in an execution-style killing in Tishreen Square after being taken from their homes last week by armed militants, according to relatives and friends.
One of them, Hosam Saraya, was a 35-year-old Syrian-American citizen who had lived in Oklahoma.
Videos verified by Reuters showed eight men in civilian clothes walking in a single file accompanied by armed militants. Reuters was able to identify the location as west of Tishreen Square, in the heart of Sweida, but could not independently verify the date the video was filmed.
A separate video shows militants opening fire on the same unarmed men kneeling in the dirt of the roundabout in Tishreen Square. Reuters verified the video’s location from the statue in the square.
A friend of the family, Moatassem Jabahi, said the fate of the men was unknown until he received a phone call from someone who saw the bodies in the square.
“We called everybody we know and went to Tishreen square and we saw them. Their bodies were torn with bullets. It was not a normal killing. It was a criminal killing,” he told Reuters.
(Reporting by Khalil Ashawi, Mahmoud Hasano and Yamam al-Shaar; Writing by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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