Between 8 December 2024 and 5 December 2025, Syria endured what can only be described as a “Year of Blood and Denial.” Chaos became the norm, civilian lives were violated on an unprecedented scale, and responsibility blurred between local, regional, and international actors.
Human rights organisations documented 11,439 deaths over the year, including 8,835 civilians—among them 512 children and 676 women. These are not mere statistics; they reflect a recurring national tragedy in a country where justice and values have all but collapsed.
Extrajudicial Killings: The Return of Jungle Law
A total of 3,071 people were executed in the field—among them 2,727 men, 296 women, and 48 children.
March marked the peak of this violence, with 1,726 summary executions reported, coinciding with assaults on checkpoints along the Syrian coast.
The nature of this violence suggests a shift: from a method of combat to an instrument of governance. Field executions no longer correlate with active combat zones—they have become part of a policy of terror and a tool for reshaping local allegiances. In some areas, life is now ruled by raw power—where the gun is law, and the battlefield serves as court.
Civilians Trapped in Crossfire
Among the 8,835 civilians killed, most deaths were the result of indiscriminate attacks, kidnappings, torture, and explosions. The toll included 512 children and 676 women, underscoring the depth of a humanitarian catastrophe that spares no one.
The conditions surrounding civilian deaths reflect a deepening anarchy:
- Random gunfire and local clashes: 440 deaths
- Turkish bombardment: 129
- Israeli airstrikes: 40
- Landmines and IEDs: 75
- Fire from the “Military Operations Administration”: 904
- Killed by unidentified gunmen: 804
- War remnants: 665
The data confirms that no party holds full control, and no faction is entirely without blame.
Turkish and Israeli Strikes: Normalising External Violence
Turkish shelling in the north and Israeli airstrikes in the south have become parallel forces in the normalisation of cross-border violence. Turkish operations against SDF-controlled areas killed dozens and displaced hundreds. In the south and centre, Israeli strikes targeted suspected regime sites, often resulting in civilian deaths and infrastructure destruction.
This military overlap illustrates the hollowing out of Syrian sovereignty. Each attack carries an external imprint, and every victim becomes another casualty in a war where the distinction between “ally” and “enemy” is meaningless.
2,604 non-civilian deaths were recorded, including members of ISIS, the SDF, Islamist militias, and others.
This diversity in armed factions reflects Syria’s fractured security environment: shifting loyalties, fragmented authority, and a total absence of centralised control.
Despite its diminished territorial presence, ISIS remains capable of executing complex attacks, targeting military and security installations—a reminder that the war on terror in Syria remains unresolved; only its geography has shifted.
The Coastal Massacre – March 2025
March brought horror to the Syrian coast—not through conventional warfare, but through systematic cleansing operations targeting civilians. Villages were encircled, young men separated from women and children, and entire communities wiped out. There was no battlefield, no symmetry in force—just massacre.
How many young men died without understanding why they were deemed “internal enemies”? How many families were erased without trial or documentation?
This was not the conduct of a state steering a transitional period. It was a power asserting control through fire and fear. The massacre served a political purpose: to demonstrate the regime’s ability to dominate, and to silence both domestic and international hesitation. It redefined “legitimacy”—no longer based on consensus or law, but on the capacity for violence. Power now lies with those who wield weapons; those who resist are eliminated or erased.
The Suweida Massacre – July 2025
Four months later, Suweida suffered a similar fate. For years, the governorate had maintained relative autonomy and resisted submission to unelected rule. Though it engaged with the state, it never surrendered completely. For the new authority, this independence was intolerable.
July saw targeted raids, assassinations, shelling of residential areas, and mass arrests. In less than three days, dozens of Druze civilians were killed—men, women, and children alike. The message was clear: there is no room for communities that seek negotiation or political transition. The age of compromise is over.
Beyond the Numbers
Massacres are not merely moments of unchecked brutality or actions by rogue elements. They reveal the nature of the political system in place. When a state turns its weapons on its own, it is not simply silencing dissent—it is re-engineering society, dictating who may exist, who may speak, and who must disappear.
This is not just a crisis of institutions or elections, but a deeper societal collapse. When the world turns a blind eye in the name of “stability”, authoritarianism is legitimised, and violence becomes state policy.
Syria’s post-war reality is not one of healing, but of a regime testing the boundaries of its dominance. These massacres are not exceptions—they are methods of establishing political order through brute force.
A regime that begins with blood will tolerate no opposition, no dissent, no decentralisation. Its foundational contract is not built on law—but on fear.
Disappearance as a Policy Tool
In 2025, disappearance in Syria was no longer incidental—it became policy. Amid global distraction over shifting frontlines, the file of forcibly disappeared women grew into a silent epidemic.
UN data show at least 97 documented cases of female abduction and enforced disappearance between January and November 2025.
These are not isolated acts; they represent a breakdown of the social contract. In a society where women’s bodies are used as leverage, the lines between politics and war blur, and power is measured by the ability to erase.
Each missing woman is a question left unanswered—a question of justice, of memory, of witness.
Attacks on religious sites surged, including the bombing of Mar Elias Church in Damascus, reviving fears of sectarian conflict. These were not random acts but calculated assaults on symbols of Syria’s pluralism—efforts to fragment society further and extinguish the idea of a shared national identity.
The Media Front: Disinformation as Warfare
Alongside physical battles, Syria witnessed a digital war. Pro-regime networks launched coordinated campaigns to discredit human rights organisations, stoke sectarian division, and label entire communities as traitors or separatists.
Social media platforms were flooded with disinformation, targeting journalists and manipulating online discourse to obscure human rights violations.
In today’s Syria, truth itself is under siege.
The Detainee Crisis: The Shadow of Injustice
Thousands remain detained or missing—civilians, doctors, former officers—many held without charges or trials since December 2024.
Their continued imprisonment undermines any talk of reconciliation and exposes the failure of the justice system. No future can be built without accountability.
A Nation on the Brink
Behind every number is a story—a child orphaned, a woman searching for answers, a youth who found no alternative to the gun.
But perhaps more alarming than the violence is the erosion of social cohesion. Sect, tribe, and region are replacing national identity, threatening the fabric of the Syrian state more than any missile could.
Hatred does not tire. And wars do not end when the bombs stop falling—they end when fear subsides and justice begins.
Between Denial and Justice: Syria’s Uncertain Future
Syria remains locked in a cycle of violence and impunity. External bombardments, internal divisions, and an indifferent international community continue to shape a bleak reality.
Transitional justice is frequently cited as the way forward, but without political will, it remains a slogan—not a solution.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
