‘They shot patients in their beds’: the testimonies of the massacre in a hospital in Syria

Militian Druso passes a military vehicle destroyed after the clashes in Suweida, Syria Omar Sanadiki/AP Syrian government forces were accused of performing a massacre in a hospital during the sectarian clashes that halted just over a week ago. The BBC visited the Suweida National Hospital, where the team says patients were murdered inside the rooms. Warning: The following story contains descriptions of violence. The smell was the first thing that impacted me. In the parking lot of the main hospital in the city of Suweida, dozens of decaying corpses are aligned with white plastic bags. Some are open, revealing the swollen and mutilated remains of the people murdered there. The asphalt under my feet is greasy and slippery of blood. Under the scorching sun, the odor is unbearable. “It was a massacre,” says Wissam Massoud, the hospital’s neurosurgeon. “The soldiers came saying they wanted to bring peace, but they killed dozens of patients – from young people to the elderly.” Earlier this week, Massoud sent me a video that, according to him, was recorded immediately after the government’s forces. In it, a woman shows the interior of the hospital. On the floor of the rooms, there are dozens of dead patients, still covered by bloody sheets. Syria announces ceasefire in the south of the country, the scene of ethnic conflicts ‘are monsters’ all here-doctors, nurses, volunteers-they say the same thing: last week, it was the Syrian government troops that attacked the Druse religious community, invaded the hospital and committed the murders. Kiness Abu Motab, a hospital volunteer, said about the victims, “What was their crime? The simple fact that they are a minority in a democratic country?” “They are criminals. They are monsters. We do not trust them at all,” said Osama Malak, the city’s English teacher at the hospital door. “They shot the head of a disabled child, only 8 years old,” he said. “By international law, hospitals should be protected. But they attacked us even inside the hospital. They entered the hospital and started shooting them all. They fired on patients in their beds while sleeping.” All parties involved in this conflict are mutually accused of committing atrocities. Both Bedouin and Drudos combatants and the Syrian army were accused of killing civilians and performing extrajudicial executions. Beside city is not yet a clear panorama of what happened in the hospital. Some people here estimate that the number of dead exceeds 300, but this data could not be verified. The day before, the Syrian Ministry of Defense stated in a statement that it was aware of the allegations of “shocking violations” committed by people dressed in military uniforms in the city of Suweida, mostly Druse. And earlier this week, Raed Saleh, Syrian Minister of Disaster Management and Emergency Response, told me that all allegations of atrocities committed everywhere would be investigated rigorously. Access to the city of Suweida has been strongly restricted, which makes it difficult to collect firsthand evidence. In practice, the city is besieged, as Syrian government forces control who can come in and out. To get in, we had to go through several control posts. When we arrived, we saw stores and burnt buildings, as well as cars crushed by tanks. The city of Suweida was clearly the scene of a harsh battle between Drudos and Bedouin combatants. It was at this moment that the Syrian government first intervened, trying to impose a ceasefire. Although several Drudos villages of the province of Suweida have already been regained by government forces, the city – where more than 70,000 people live – continues under total control of the Drudos. Before we left the hospital, we found 8-year-old Hala Al-Khatib sitting on a bench with his aunt. The girl has a bloody and bandaged face. It seems to have lost one eye. She tells us that gunmen broke into the house and shot her as she hid inside a closet. Hala doesn’t know yet, but her parents are dead. Mossad’s achievements and failures, the powerful espionage agency of Israel forces of the new Syrian government are accused of killing hundreds of civilians; What is known new Syrian leader really broke with its Islamic radical past?

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