Syrian Christian leaders say they cannot trust the Syrian government of Ahmed Al-Sharaa to provide the safety they need after a week of deadly clashes that claimed the lives of 1,000 people in the southern region of Sweida and urged international protection.

Greek Catholic Father Toni Butros of Sweida posted a video circulated on X July 21 in which he wants to bring international attention to “massacres that have happened to us in Sweida.” 

Bloody sectarian clashes drawing in Sunni Muslim bedouins and armed tribes quickly erupted against the Druze and Christian communities on July 13. Syrian government forces sent to quell the violence, were among those caught perpetrating atrocities.

Widespread violations were directed mainly toward Druze civilians who were hunted down and killed in their homes and cars. Syrian troops, identified by their fatigues and insignia, shot others in the street. Christians, too, were caught in the crosshairs with churches set on fire, including the Greek Melkite Church of St. Michael in Al-Sura. Meanwhile, 38 Christian homes were set ablaze leaving numerous families homeless.

L’Oeuvre d’Orient, a Catholic charity, reported July 21 that several hundred Christians, most probably those whose houses were burned, are currently sheltering in the Melkite parish in Shorba, the Capuchin Franciscan fathers’ church and the Greek Orthodox archdiocese in Sweida without water, food or electricity.

Father Butros made an impassioned plea to the world community. “We demand international protection,” the priest said. “We are not minorities, we are part of Syria and have lived here for hundreds of years. We are the people of this land. We and our Druze brothers live here together.”

 “We ask the U.S., Europe, the Vatican and the whole world for international protection for Sweida, the region, all of it, for us and for our Druze brothers,” the Catholic priest said.

“The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East joins its voice with the voices of the wise of this world to call for an end to the bloodshed in Suwayda (Sweida) and commends regional and international mediation efforts to put an end to these massacres that target the coexistence of all communities,” wrote Patriarch John X, Greek Orthodox primate, one of Syria’s most senior Christian clergymen, in a July 20 statement.