SWEIDA, Syria — After applying for passports in Damascus, Lamis and her daughter found themselves wounded in a shooting while returning to Druze-majority Sweida, southern Syria, along the highway residents now call "the road of death".

 

Months after a ceasefire put an end to week-long deadly sectarian clashes in Sweida province, residents still fear leaving the provincial capital, which shares the same name.

 

"My brother, my daughters and I went to Damascus [on Tuesday] to get passports because we wanted to travel," Lamis, who asked to only share her first name out of fear for her safety, told AFP from her hospital bed on Wednesday.

 

On their way back to Sweida, Lamis said "a man on a motorcycle" stopped the civilian coach they were on.

 

"He asked the driver where we were going. When he replied 'to Sweida', the armed man made a gesture and bullets started raining down from everywhere," she added.

 

Two civilians were killed in the attack, according to Syrian authorities, while several others were wounded.

 

'Terrified'

 

Lamis was wounded in both her thighs while her seven-year-old daughter was shot in the hand.

 

"Of course, I am now terrified to take that road with my daughters. What happened to us is terrible. We won't be able to take that road again...it's become known as the road of death," she said.

 

State news agency SANA reported that "a passenger coach... on the Damascus-Sweida road was fired upon by unidentified gunmen, killing two people and wounding others".

 

Local outlet Sweida 24 identified the victims as a woman and a young man.

 

The outlet said that the coach was on its way back from Damascus, "within the area where General Security checkpoints are deployed".

 

While Sweida city remains under the control of Druze factions, Syrian government forces now control much of the province, with checkpoints placed on several parts of the Damascus-Sweida highway.

 

According to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, while the coach shooting was the most significant incident, the highway has been the scene of several kidnapping attempts and shootings.

 

The Observatory said that government-affiliated groups that do not fall directly under Damascus's rule were operating checkpoints, which it said posed risks.

 

'No longer safe'

 

The clashes in July killed more than 2,000 people, including 789 Druze civilians who were "summarily executed by defence and interior ministry personnel", according to the Observatory.

 

The monitor also reported that in August a woman was killed when an "armed group" opened fire on two civilian cars at a checkpoint between Damascus and Sweida.

 

In September, the Syrian government announced a plan backed by Jordan and the United States to restore calm and to hold "those who attacked civilians" accountable, but the situation remains unstable.

 

Residents of Sweida said they remained apprehensive about the security situation.

 

Safwan Obeid, 40, feared missing his visa appointment at an embassy in Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon because the road to Damascus has become dangerous.

 

"The road is no longer safe," he said.

 

"With buses being targeted on the Damascus-Sweida road, it's completely unsafe, and there's no way I can get to Damascus and then travel on to Beirut."

 

Others like Mudar, a 25-year-old university student in Latakia, western Syria, said they were now scared of returning to Sweida.

 

"Yesterday's incident was one of the worst," he said, adding that "since then, I have not even considered going back to Sweida until the end of the academic year".

 

"You feel like a stranger in your own country."