FIRST HALF OF 2023 SAW 501 CIVILIANS KILLED IN SYRIA

Tue 04 July 2023:

Just over 500 civilians have been killed in Syria this year, according to the latest monthly report published on Sunday by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).

In a press release, the SNHR stated that the civilian death toll for the first half of 2023, up to and including June, stands at 501. Of those, 118, including 15 children, 19 women and four torture victims, were killed last month alone.

“The 29-page report notes that extrajudicial killings have become so widespread primarily due to the systematic killing of civilians by Syrian regime forces and their affiliated militias,” said the organisation.

In addition to documenting the victims who died of torture, the report also recorded “the massacres perpetrated by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria,” with “massacre” referring to an incident in which no fewer than five peaceful individuals were killed.

Chart showing the distribution of civilian death toll in #Syria in the first half of 2023 according to the perpetrator party
As documented by #SNHR

Full report: https://t.co/V4TlWa7TUf pic.twitter.com/c7K4DRZQcw

— Syrian Network (@snhr) July 3, 2023

Analysing the figures for the year to date, the organisation found that Syrian regime forces killed 62 civilians, including five children and four women, while Russian forces killed five civilians. Furthermore, Daesh killed one civilian and Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HT) killed seven civilians, including two women.

The report recorded that nine civilians, including one child and one woman, were killed by armed opposition factions, while 20 civilians, including five children and two women, were killed by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Three civilians were killed by international coalition forces.

However, the majority of the non-combatants who lost their lives in the first half of this year — 394 — were described as having died at the hands of “other parties”, which includes landmines, unidentified gunfire and bombings in addition to Turkish and Jordanian forces (one and seven civilians, respectively) and death by drowning (63 civilians).

The SNHR called on the UN Security Council to take additional steps following its adoption of Resolution 2254 and emphasised the importance of referring the Syrian file to the International Criminal Court. It added that all of those involved in perpetrating crimes against humanity and war crimes should be held accountable.