More than 1,000 unarmed Druze civilians have been killed in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime, according to figures documented by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), highlighting the scale of violence that has struck the community during the country’s troubled transition.
Since the fall of the Syrian regime on December 8, 2024, Syria has entered an exceptionally complex transitional period that was supposed to establish a new relationship between the state and the country’s different communities and regions. Instead, recurring security, political and humanitarian crises have deepened mistrust between the new authorities and several parts of the country, particularly Sweida Governorate, the heartland of Syria’s Druze community.
From Sahnaya to the Sweida Bloodshed
One of the first major tests came in May 2025, when violence erupted in Sahnaya, Ashrafiyat Sahnaya and Jaramana. SOHR documented 36 deaths connected with those events, including 18 civilians killed during the violence, 14 people summarily executed in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya, three civilians—including a child—killed by shelling and clashes, and a Druze civilian killed when a mortar shell struck the village of Rassas in rural Sweida.
The crisis escalated dramatically in July 2025, when large-scale fighting broke out in Sweida following a series of kidnappings and clashes. The violence expanded as government forces, tribal groups and local Druze factions became involved.
SOHR puts the death toll from the Sweida events at 985 people. Its documentation includes civilians as well as members of the Druze community killed during the violence. Among those recorded were women, children, elderly people and 20 members of the medical staff at Sweida National Hospital.
Of particular concern are allegations concerning the conduct of government forces. SOHR says that Druze were subjected to summary killings attributed to members of the Ministries of Defense and Interior. It also documented extrajudicial killings, torture, abductions, sexual violence, destruction of property and forced displacement during the violence.
The killing did not end with the major confrontations. SOHR recorded another 19 Druze killed in individual killings and targeted attacks during 2025, followed by eight more during 2026. 1,048 Unarmed Druze Civilians
According to SOHR’s cumulative documentation, 1,048 unarmed Druze civilians were killed between the fall of the Assad regime on December 8, 2024, and 2026. The total covers the violence in Sahnaya, Ashrafiyat Sahnaya and Jaramana, the July 2025 events in Sweida, and subsequent individual killings and targeted attacks.
The Observatory stresses that the figures represent more than a death toll. The violence has left the Druze community dealing with unresolved cases of missing and abducted persons, displacement, destruction and a profound erosion of trust between Sweida and Syria’s transitional authorities. For many Druze, SOHR says, the events since the regime’s collapse have generated fears that sectarian identity itself may determine the fate of civilians. Security, justice, accountability and establishing the fate of the missing have consequently become central demands of the local community.
Accountability for All Perpetrators
SOHR is calling for serious and transparent investigations into the violations and crimes committed during the Sweida violence and for those responsible to be brought before the courts, regardless of their affiliation.
It stresses that accountability cannot be selective: perpetrators of killings and abuses must be pursued on all sides, while the rights of victims and their families must be protected. Genuine justice, it argues, requires both preventing impunity and ensuring that justice itself is not employed collectively or selectively. Only accountability under the rule of law, applied without exception, can provide a foundation for sustainable stability.
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