DAMASCUS: Syria’s interior ministry on Monday said it would hold accountable those responsible for the apparent killing of an unarmed man at a hospital during violence last month in Druze-majority Sweida province, after a purported video of the incident emerged.
“We condemn and denounce this act in the strongest terms and affirm that the perpetrators will be held accountable and brought to justice... whatever their affiliation,” the ministry said in a statement.
A week of bloodshed began on July 13 with clashes between local Druze fighters and Bedouin tribes, but the violence rapidly escalated as it drew in outside forces, eventually killing some 1,600 people, many of them Druze civilians, according to an updated toll by a war monitor.
Local media outlet Suwayda 24 published the video on Sunday, saying it was from hospital surveillance footage.
Forces in military garb are seen shooting dead a man whom Suwayda 24 identified as an engineer volunteering with the hospital team after a brief scuffle, as a group of people dressed as health care workers are crouched on the floor.
