At least 4,759 civilians were killed as a result of the conflict in Syria in the first half of 2018, including 593 civilians in June alone, according to new report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).
The report notes that since is was founded the SNHR has largely focused on documenting all victims, regardless of the perpetrating party and created a database of the names and their information such as sex, age, occupation, cause of death, the party that killed them, and the type of weapon used.
The report also sheds light on the various and differing patterns of crimes and methods of killing that have been documented since the popular uprising for freedom started in March 2011, ranging from gunfire, air attacks, torture inside detention centers, chemical and cluster attacks, landmines, as well as victims who died of hypothermia, starvation, shortages in medication or drowning as they fled.
The report includes the civilian death toll by the seven parties involved in the conflict in Syria. The report stresses that military victims weren’t included in light of the difficulties found in this type of documentation.
The report draws upon ongoing monitoring of news and developments, and on a wide network of relations with tens of various sources, in addition to analyzing a large number of pictures and videos.
The report stresses that many incidents that resulted in casualties might not constitute a violation of international humanitarian law but involved collateral damage. Therefore, they are recorded in order to preserve historical accuracy without considering them as having qualified as crimes.
According to the report, June saw a rise in the civilian death toll compared to May in light of the vicious offensive in Daraa province, a de-escalation zone, by Syrian-Russian forces who topped all parties in terms of killing civilians in the month of June by killing 393 civilians, including 221 in Daraa.
The report adds that the trend of civilian killed by bombing whose perpetrators weren’t identified continued in June for a third month in a row, as well as assassinations. Most of these incidents were in Idleb province.
The report records that of the 4,759 civilians killed in the first half of 2018, 3,056, including 616 children and 507 women, were killed by Syrian regime forces, while Russian forces killed 398, including 138 children and 79 women. The report also records that 182 civilians, including 43 children and 15 women, were killed at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS), and 23 civilians, including five children, were killed by Hay’at Tahrir al Sham.
Additionally, the report documents that 30 civilians were killed at the hands of factions from the armed opposition, including 11 children and four women, while Self-Management forces killed 112 civilians, including 11 children and 18 women. The report also records that International Coalition forces killed 254 civilians, including 113 children and 68 women, while 704 civilians were killed by other parties.
In June, the report records, 593 civilians were killed. Of those, 342 civilians were killed by Syrian regime forces, including 74 children (an average of three children per day), 60 women (adult female), and 84 as a result of torture. Also, 51 civilians, including 10 children and nine women were killed by forces believed to be Russian.
On the other hand, the report notes that 19 civilians, including five children, were killed by ISIS while the report records that six civilians, including four children, and two due to torture, were killed at the hands of factions from the armed opposition. Self-Management forces, on the other hand, were responsible for the killing of 16 civilians, including two children and three due to torture.
The report documents that 61 civilians, including 29 children and 11 women, were killed in airstrikes by International Coalition warplanes, while 98 civilians, including 17 children and seven women, were killed by other parties.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
