Brutal violence: There are corpses everywhere - at least 500 dead VIDEO

Videos taken inside the hospital showed corridors full of corpses, rooms full of body bags and corpses piled up outside. Another doctor from the intensive care unit said the bodies had to be placed outside the mortuary due to lack of space.

The victims, both civilians and soldiers, were among at least 516 civilians and fighters killed in four days of fighting in the Druze-majority province, according to figures provided by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

At least 86 of those killed were executions of Druze civilians by government fighters or allied militias, as well as three Bedouin civilians killed by Druze fighters, SOHR said.

The fighting, which began as a local dispute between Bedouin tribesmen and Druze fighters, quickly escalated and prompted Syrian government forces to intervene. Druze fighters resisted their entry into the province and clashes with Syrian government forces began.

Residents described the four days of terror as fighting that quickly took on a sectarian character - the violence was the most serious threat to Syria's stability since March, when 1,500 mostly Alawite civilians were killed after a failed attack on government forces.

Al Sharaa promised protection to minorities

Syria's president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has vowed to protect the country's minorities since the ouster of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December. He now leads a country torn by sectarian divisions after 14 years of civil war, without the resources to engage in the transitional justice needed to heal it.

The president, a former al Qaeda leader turned statesman, has been welcomed onto the international stage, but there are deep misgivings about him among Syria's minorities at home.

Al Šara EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ / POOL

A large number of dead

At least 15 unarmed people were killed in a hall owned by the Radwan family in the town of Sweida on Tuesday, three family members told the Guardian. SOHR also reported killings, although it put the death toll at 12.

"They were sitting there drinking coffee when gunmen came in and just started shooting. No guns are allowed in the hall, it's not like it's a military base," said Man Radwan, a 46-year-old London resident whose relatives were killed in the shooting.

Sweida residents blamed government forces for the killings, but witnesses said it was impossible to distinguish state security forces from rogue militias.

An eyewitness said the attackers were wearing military uniforms, but he could not tell whether they were from government forces or the militia.

"It is impossible to say who is killing us," a 52-year-old teacher and relative of the Radwan family in Sweida told the Guardian by phone.

Hospitals are overloaded

Video footage of the aftermath of the shooting shows unarmed men scattered around the room, lying in pools of blood. Family members said men in military uniforms prevented ambulances from reaching the reception hall, which they thought was meant to ensure the wounded died of blood loss.

Baha received the bodies of those killed in the shooting in Radwan at the hospital, some of whom he knew personally, and said that their bodies had wounds from close range shots. He would recognize many more corpses that later passed through the hospital's doors.

Conditions in the hospital itself became desperate as fighters besieged the facility. Doctors hid in the corridors as bullets and artillery flew, and the hospital itself was hit at least once. They started rationing medicine and other basic supplies.

"We were trying to limit each wounded person to 2 or 3 cubes of tramadol and we would dilute it so that it would be enough for everybody," said the ICU doctor.

"They will be held accountable"

Al-Sharaa gave a speech on Thursday in which he condemned the abuse of civilians and said they would be held accountable. Syria's defense ministry also said it was "following the rules of engagement to protect residents".

Tanjug/AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki

"We are determined to hold accountable anyone who has wronged or harmed our Druze brothers. They are under the protection and responsibility of the state, and law and justice guarantee the rights of everyone without exception," said the Syrian president.

Despite Wednesday's ceasefire, occasional violence appeared to continue. Rumors of another Bedouin attack on Sweida sparked a mass exodus of residents on Thursday. Yusef sent a video of himself interviewing people as they fled. One had two body bags in the trunk of his pickup truck. Opening one of the bags, Yusef showed the body of a woman with her throat cut.

The cycle of violence "an eye for an eye", which carried sectarian overtones, threatens the unity of the new Syrian state, which the authorities in Damascus have been desperately trying to maintain. Mistrust between the Druze and the new authorities, and vice versa, has fallen to an all-time low.

Syrian state media reported on Thursday that small Bedouin communities in Sweida have now been attacked, leading to further displacement and what they called massacres by "renegade groups".

Social networks have been flooded with new images of dead civilians, this time, they claim, the Druze are attacking the Bedouins.