Members of the Syrian security and military services have been detained as part of an investigation into sectarian violence in the southern province of Sweida in July that killed hundreds of people, investigators there said today.
The head of the Syrian committee investigating the violence in Sweida held a news conference in the capital Damascus to discuss progress made, but did not release a death toll, saying it would be announced in a final report expected by the end of the year.
In mid-July, armed groups affiliated with Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri clashed with local Bedouin clans, prompting the intervention of government forces who effectively sided with the Bedouins. Hundreds of civilians, mostly Druze, were killed, many of them government fighters.
Judge Hatem Nasan, head of the investigative committee, said they had heard from people affected by the violence, including "witnesses and victims."
"We have achieved positive results," Nasan told reporters in Damascus, adding that members of the security services and the army "who were proven to have committed violations based on the committee's investigations and videos published on social media platforms" were detained.
Nasan did not say how many were detained, adding that after questioning they were forwarded to judicial authorities.
"Videos posted on social media clearly show the faces and that they were detained by the competent authorities," Nasan said, adding that the security guards were detained by the Ministry of Interior, while the military members are being held by the Ministry of Defense.
Videos have emerged online showing gunmen killing Druze civilians kneeling in public squares and shaving the mustaches of elderly men in an act of humiliation.
After the violence in July, many in Sweida now want some form of autonomy within a federal system. A smaller group is calling for complete partition.
Most of the approximately one million Druze worldwide live in Syria, with the rest in Lebanon, Israel and the Golan Heights, which Israel took from Syria in 1967 and later annexed.
Bonus video:
