AMMAN/BEIRUT — At least three people were killed in clashes between Druze militias and security forces in the southern Syrian city of Sweida on Friday, two witnesses and a local activist said.
They said anti-government fighters also took control of the main police station and the biggest civilian prison hours after hundreds of people protested in a main square demanding the downfall of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
“People are seeing what is happening in the rest of Syria as liberation of Syria and a chance to bring down the regime,” activist Ryan Marouf, editor of Suwayda 24, a website that covers the province, told Reuters.
The outlet further showed footage of staff leaving the police headquarters building and a clip of fighters destroying a picture of Assad.
“The Sweida governor, the police and prison chiefs, and the local Baath Party leader left their offices in the city of Sweida, as local fighters took control of some checkpoints in the province,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
AN, Dec 6, 2024
