Assad's forces killed an average of ten children a day in May

The London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) documented the death of 3,204 people in Syria in the month of May alone, 66 per cent of who were civilians. The forces of the Syrian regime killed 1,795 civilians, including 290 children and 173 women.

SNHR noted in its monthly report that 26 per cent of those killed in May by forces aligned with President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime were women and children, which it says indicates that the regime’s forces are “deliberately targeting civilians”.

696 opposition fighters were also killed at the hands of the regime’s forces.

SNHR reported that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) killed 103 civilians, including 34 children, 9 women and a media activist, in addition to 317 opposition fighters in clashes between the two sides or through executing prisoners of war.

The report documented that opposition fighters killed 222 persons, 215 of who were civilians including 57 children and 23 women. Seven opposition fighters were killed during clashes amongst the different opposition factions.

The report stated that: “We would like to mention that this is the death toll we could document accurately by name, place and time through our members who are distributed in different Syrian governorates. However, there are lots of cases, which were out of our reach, especially in the cases of massacres in some towns and villages where the Syrian government usually cuts all connections and surrounds the targeted town or village, which will probably make the actual number of victims higher than the documented number.

“All of this is because the Syrian government prevents Human Rights organisations from working on its lands,” the report added.