28,000 Syrian children killed since 2011, reveals human rights report

A new report issued by the Syrian Human Rights Network on World Children’s Day has revealed that 28,226 children have been killed in Syria by various parties since the war began in 2011. Commenting on the statistics, the network insisted that, “There can be no stability in Syria and the region without the stability of its children.”

The organisation has documented as many as 22,444 children who have been killed by Syrian regime forces since March 2011. This figure includes 196 who were killed by chemical weapons and 394 who were killed by cluster bombs, either directly or after picking up unexploded bomblets. The report has also revealed that 301 children have died due to a lack of food and medicine in many besieged areas.

At least 3,155 children are still being held in detention by the regime, or have simply been forcibly disappeared. The report’s data is generally understood to be up-to-date.

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Russian forces, meanwhile, are said to have killed 1,872 children since the start of Moscow’s military intervention in Syria on 30 September 2015. At least 46 children are known to have been killed in 232 cluster bomb attacks by the Russians, who have also damaged more than 170 schools and carried out attacks which have displaced tens of thousands of children.

Since January, 2014, says the Rights Network, 167 children have been killed in areas controlled by the Kurdish PKK; almost 600 are still in detention.

Finally, the report notes that 837 children were killed by Daesh, while a further 886 were killed by coalition forces since the start of the international intervention in Syria on 23 September 2014.

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