“They shot patients in their family” – BBC monitors a “massacre” in the National Hospital

The Syrian government forces were accused of committing a “massacre” in the National Sweida Hospital during the sectarian clashes that erupted more than a week ago in the city of As -Suwayda.

BBC visited the hospital, where workers claim that patients were killed inside the hospital wings.

Warning: This story contains a description of violence

I was shocked by the bad smell before I see anything.

In the main hospital parking in the city of As -Suwayda, dozens of bodies decomposing in white plastic bags were brought up.

Some of them are open, revealing swollen and distorted residue for those who were killed here. And the corridor is under two fat feet and has traces of blood.

In the inflamed sun, the bad smell spreads the place.

“It was a massacre,” said Dr. Wissam Masoud, a hospital surgeon.

“The soldiers came to the city, saying they wanted to bring peace, but they killed dozens of patients, both young and old.”

Earlier this week, Dr. Masoud sent me a video, saying that he recorded immediately after a raid to the government forces, in which a woman was driving you on a hospital tour. On the ground in the wards, there are dozens of dead patients who are still wrapped in the sheets of blood stained.

Everyone in the hospital is doctors, nurses and volunteers who say the same novel.

They say that last Wednesday evening, the Syrian government forces, which targeted the Druze community, came to the hospital and carried out killings.

“What is their crime?” Says Kennis Abu Miteb, a volunteer in the hospital.

Osama Malik, an English teacher in the city, told me outside the hospital gates: “They are criminals. They are monsters. We do not trust them at all.”

He added, “They fired an eight -year -old disabled child.” “Under international law, hospitals must be protected. But they attacked us even in hospitals.”

“They were hospitalized,” he says. “

All parties involved in Sweida clashes accuse each other of atrocities.

Gunmen from the Bedouins and Druze clans, as well as the Syrian army, were accused of killing civilians and carrying out outside the law.

There is no clear picture of what happened in the hospital. Some estimate the number of people who were killed last Wednesday with more than 300 people, but this number cannot be independently verified.

The Syrian Ministry of Defense said, on Tuesday evening, in a statement, that it was aware of reports of “horrific violations” committed by people wearing military uniforms in the city of As -Suwayda, with a druze majority in the country.

Earlier this week, Raed Al -Saleh, the Syrian Minister of Disaster Management and Response of Emergency Cases, told me that he would be completely investigated in any allegations of the atrocities committed by all parties.

Serious restrictions have imposed on reaching the city of As -Suwayda, which means that collecting direct evidence was difficult.

The city is actually besieging, as the Syrian government forces impose restrictions on those who are allowed to enter and get out of it.

To enter, we had to pass through many checkpoints.

When we entered the city, we passed the shops, burned buildings, and cars destroyed by the tanks. It is clear that there is a fierce battle witnessed by the city of As -Suwayda between the Druze and Bedouin fighters, and then the Syrian government intervened for the first time to try to impose a ceasefire.

Although government forces recovered many Druze villages in the As -Suwayda Governorate, the city, which is inhabited by more than 70,000 people, is still under full Druze control.

Before we left the hospital, we found Hala Al -Khatib, who is eight -year -old, sitting on a seat with her aunt.

Hala face was stained with blood and joined. It seems that she lost one of her eyes. She tells us that gunmen opened fire on her head when she was hiding in a wardrobe inside her home.

Hala does not yet know that her parents have died.

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