Death toll from south Syria violence tops 1,260

Sectarian violence in southern Syria killed more than 1,260 people before the implementation of a recent ceasefire, a war monitor said Monday, offering an updated toll as it continued to document deaths that took place prior to the truce.

The dead from the violence in Sweida province included 505 Druze fighters and 298 Druze civilians, 194 of whom were “summarily executed by defence and interior ministry personnel”.

They also included 408 government security personnel and 35 Sunni Bedouin, three of them civilians who were “summarily executed by Druze fighters”. Another 15 government troops were killed in Israeli strikes, the Observatory said.