BEIRUT (AFP) – Syria’s war has killed more than 507,000 people, a war monitor said yesterday ahead of the 13th anniversary of the conflict which has displaced millions at home and abroad.
The government’s brutal suppression of an uprising that erupted on March 15, 2011, triggered a full-scale civil war that drew in foreign armies and international extremists.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said more than 164,000 civilians, including more than 15,000 women and 25,000 children, have been killed.
More than 343,000 combatants, including army soldiers, fighters from different groups and Islamic State group extremists, are also among the dead, added the observatory, which has a network of sources across the country.
The overall figure has risen from around 503,000 last March, with the frontlines mostly quietening in recent years.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has gradually clawed back territory lost early in the fighting with help from allies but large swathes of the north remain outside government control.
The United Nations (UN) has said that this year, 16.7 million people in Syria require some type of humanitarian assistance or protection, “the largest number since the beginning of the crisis in 2011”.
The war has ravaged Syria’s economy, infrastructure and industry, while Western sanctions have added to the country’s woes.
