“They shot patients in beds” – BBC hears allegations of slaughter at Suweida Hospital

Syrian government forces were accused of slaughtering a hospital during sectarian clashes that broke out just over a week ago.

The BBC has visited Suweida National Hospital, where employees claim that patients were killed in wards.

Warning: This story contains descriptions of violence

The stench hit me first of all.

In the parking lot of the main hospital in the city of Subitis, dozens of decaying corpses are lined in white plastic body bags.

Some of them are open to the elements, revealing bloated and mutilated remains of those killed here.

Asfuta under my feet is oily and slippery of blood.

In the stewing sun, the smell is captivating.

“It was a slaughter,” he tells me Masud, a neurosurgeon at the hospital.

“The soldiers came here, saying they wanted to bring peace, but killed dozens of patients, from very young to the very old.”

Earlier this week, Masud sent me a video that he said was next to the government raid.

In it, your wife shows you around the hospital. There are dozens of dead patients on the ground in the wards who still embark on their bloody sheets.

Everyone here, doctors, nurses, volunteers say the same thing.

Last Wednesday night, it was the Syrian government troops aimed at the Druza religious community that came to the hospital and committed the killings.

Kines Abu Motab, a volunteer at the hospital, told the victims: “What is their crime? Only for being a minority in a democratic country?”

“They are criminals. They are monsters. We don’t believe them at all,” I told me an English teacher Osama Malak in the city outside the hospital gates.

“They shot an eight -year -old disabled boy,” he said.

“According to international law, hospitals should be protected. But they even attacked us in hospitals.

“They went to the hospital. They began to shoot everyone. They shot patients in their beds as they slept.”

All parties to this conflict are accused each other of committing atrocities.

Both Bedouin and Druza’s fighters and the Syrian army have been charged with killing civilians and additional court murders.

There is still no clear picture of what happened in the hospital. Some here appreciate the number of people who will be killed last Wednesday at more than 300, but this figure cannot be checked.

On Tuesday evening, the Syrian Ministry of Defense said in a statement that it was aware of reports of “shocking violations” by people carrying military fatigue at a predominantly Druze City on Suweweida.

Earlier this week, Raed Saleh, the Syrian Minister for Disaster Management and Response in Emergency Situations, told me that any allegations of atrocities made by all sides would be fully investigated.

Access to the city of Suweida is very limited, which means that gathering first -hand evidence is difficult.

The city is in force on siege, with Syrian government forces limiting who is allowed and exit.

In order to enter, we had to go through numerous checkpoints.

When we entered the city, we passed burned shops and buildings and cars that were crushed by tanks.

City Sweyda had clearly seen a serious battle between friend and Bedouin fighters.

At this point, the Syrian government first intervened to try and impose a ceasefire.

Although numerous villages of Druza in the province of Suwis have been restored by government forces, the city, the home of more than 70,000 people, remains under complete control of Druza.

Before leaving the hospital, we found eight-year-old Hala Al-Khatib sitting on a bench with her aunt.

Hala’s face is bloody and bandaged. She seems to have lost her eye.

She tells us that the gunners came and shot her in the head, she hid in a cabinet in her home.

Hala still doesn’t know him, but both her parents are dead.