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More than 21,000 killed in Syria during 2015

December 29, 2015 at 3:22 pm

The Syrian Network for Human Rights has said that it documented the killing of 1,793 people in Syria this month, bringing the total number killed in the war-torn country this year to 21,179, nearly 75 per cent of them by the regime forces. The figures were revealed by the group in a special report published on Monday.

“Government forces have caused the deaths of 15,748 people in Syria in 2015,” said the network, “of whom 3,704 were armed militants and 12,044 were civilians.” Of the latter, 2,592 were children and 1,957 were women. At least 1,546 people died under torture, including seven children and four women.

According to the human rights group, the percentage of children and women who were killed by the regime amounted to 38 per cent of civilian casualties, a stark indication of how the government forces target civilians deliberately. An average of ten children were killed every day.

The report noted that Russian forces have killed 849 civilians, including 199 children and 109 women. It pointed to the high proportion of civilian deaths by the regime and Russian forces. Furthermore, it pointed out that 132 civilians were killed by Kurdish forces, including 32 children and 12 women as well as four people who died under torture. The rights group said that 2,265 people were killed by extremist militants. “Daesh is responsible for the deaths of 2,098 people, including 732 militants and 1,366 civilians, of which 149 were children and 188 were women,” it said.

Al-Nusra Front killed 167 people, including 78 militants and 89 civilians (13 children and 11 women, and nine people due to torture). In fact, says the report, 1,121 people were killed by opposition factions, including 49 militants and 1,072 civilians (258 children and 181 women and nine because of torture). The international coalition forces, meanwhile, have killed 277 civilians, including 87 children and 46 women.

The report also documented the deaths of 787 people, including 168 militants and 631 civilians (113 children and 111 women) who died either by drowning on migrant boats or in bombings where the network was unable to confirm the identity of the bombers.

The group highlighted the difficulties faced by its team in documenting the victims of armed opposition groups, because many of them are killed in the battlefield. It is, therefore, not usually possible to obtain details such as names or photographs. As such, it believes that the published statistics actually under-estimate the total number of those killed.

The network added that it is almost impossible to access information about victims of the regime forces or those of Daesh. The error rate is thus too high when documenting this category of victim due to the lack of systematic and verifiable documentation.