GENEVA, March 27, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - War crimes and crimes against humanity 
might have been committed when brutal violence tore through Syria's southern 
Sweida province last year, killing more than 1,700, UN investigators said 
Friday.

The United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria (COI)'s warning came in a 
fresh report focused on a week of bloodshed last July, ignited by clashes 
between fighters from the Druze minority and Sunni Bedouin.

The violence rapidly escalated and drew in government forces and fighters 
from other parts of Syria.

The COI said it had documented "widespread executions, torture, gender-based 
violence and the burning of homes" during the violence in the Syrian 
heartland of the Druze, who follow an esoteric religion that split from 
Shiite Islam centuries ago.

"Serious violations carried out by government forces and Druze armed groups 
may amount to war crimes," commissioner Fionnuala Ni Aolain said in a 
statement.

She warned that "the events also raise serious concerns that the attacks may 
have been part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian 
population of Sweida", urging "further measures by the government to 
investigate these events as comprising crimes against humanity".

The commission has been probing international law violations in Syria since 
the start of the long civil war that devastated the country from 2011 until 
the overthrow of president Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

It detailed "three overlapping waves of violence" in Sweida between July 14 
and 19 last year.

- 'Murder, torture' -

The violence killed more than 1,700 people and forced nearly 200,000 from 
their homes, it said.

Last week, an official fact-finding committee formed by the Syrian government 
said it had documented the killing of 1,760 people in the violence.

The UN report, which drew on 409 first-hand accounts from survivors and 
witnesses, alongside field visits to the hardest-hit areas, said the first 
wave of violence on July 14-16 was the deadliest.

Government forces accompanied by tribal fighters had committed "widespread 
violations of international humanitarian and human rights law against Druze 
civilians", the commission statement said, listing "murder, torture, 
arbitrary detention and pillage".

Men identified as Druze were separated from women and children and 
"executed", it said.

During a second wave, beginning on July 17, government forces withdrew 
following Israeli airstrikes on Sweida and Damascus.

Meanwhile, Druze armed groups attacked Bedouin civilians, committing murder, 
torture, arbitrary detention and forced displacement, among other violations, 
the report found.

In the third wave, from July 17-19, tribal fighters targeted Druze civilians 
in retaliation.

"Nearly all homes, businesses and religious sites in up to 35 Druze-majority 
or mixed villages were burned and looted, and civilians were killed or 
abducted," the commission said, pointing out that members of government 
forces had removed their uniforms and joined the attacks.

- Accountability 'urgently needed' -

The COI also highlighted how Israel's strikes had not only killed and maimed 
people, but had contributed to instability, "fuelling accusations of treason 
against Druze community leaders, and prompting... retaliatory attacks against 
the entire community".

The commission warned that Sweida remained deeply divided, and that almost 
all of the nearly 200,000 people displaced last July remained unable to 
return home.

It also called on Israel and other external actors to halt actions that might 
further destabilise the situation.

"Expanded efforts to pursue accountability for all perpetrators, regardless 
of affiliation or rank, are urgently needed to rebuild trust among the victim 
communities, alongside genuine dialogue to resolve root causes," UN 
commission chair Paulo Pinheiro said.