After days of bloodshed, residents of Syria's Sweida confront devastation

SWEIDA (Syria) (AFP) – Residents emerged from their homes to scenes of devastation on Thursday after government forces withdrew from the Syrian Druze-majority city of Sweida, leaving behind looted shops, burned homes and bodies littering the streets after days of violence.

"What I saw of the city looked as if it had just emerged from a flood or a natural disaster," Hanadi Obeid, a 39-year-old doctor, told AFP.

What started as deadly clashes between local Druze fighters and Bedouin tribes on Sunday quickly escalated after government forces were deployed to the province the following day.

After reaching an agreement with Sweida's community leaders, Syrian troops withdrew from the city overnight on Wednesday following what witnesses described as a violent rampage.

"Three bodies were lying in the street, one of them an elderly woman," Obeid said, adding that she saw "burned cars everywhere, others upside down, and a charred tank".

Many residents had holed up in their homes as they waited for the fighting to end.

On Thursday, Sweida's typically-bustling streets and markets were still largely quiet, with Obeid saying a foul odour emanated from the area as stray dogs roamed around.

As a doctor, she has seen "many corpses and dead bodies, but death has had a different taste in recent days, and I've felt it closer to me than ever before".

Obeid, who has a young daughter, said she feared what awaited her when she returned to work at the city's main hospital.

More than 500 people from all sides were killed in the violence, according to the Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

'HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHE'

An AFP photographer reported chaos outside the central hospital, with dozens of bodies brought there since Thursday morning after being collected from homes and streets. The photographer counted 15 bodies in the city centre.

Grief-stricken families were seen arriving at the hospital searching for their loved ones.

Local media outlet Suwayda 24 reported that the central hospital was put out of service on Wednesday after government forces entered it and clashed with Druze fighters.