Nearly 585,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
4th of January 2020
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the death of 380,636 persons across Syria since the start of the Syrian Revolution on the 15th of March 2011 to the 1st of January 2020.
A breakdown of the overall death toll is as follows:
- Civilians: 115,490 Syrians, including 21,949 children under the age of eighteen and 13,612 females over the age of eighteen
- Syrian fighters of rebel and Islamic factions and other various factions, movements, and organizations: 53,799
- Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) and Kurdish units: 12,658
- Syrian army defectors: 2,625.
- Bashar al-Assad’s regime forces: 66,620; fighters of NDF and Syrian regime loyalists: 51,594; fighters of the Lebanese Hezbollah: 1,682; and gunmen of non-Syrian nationalities loyal to the regime forces of the Shiite community: 8,245, of whom, 264 were Russian soldiers and mercenaries
- Turkish soldiers: 111.
- Jihadis of Hayyat Tahrir Al-Sham (former Nusra Front), and other various jihadi organizations: 26,758
- ISIS members: 37,707
- Non-Syrian fighters of SDF: 930.
- The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights was not able to document the number of deaths of the International Coalition, due to the extreme secrecy.
- Unidentified people whose death was documented by pictures and videos: 417; in addition to 3,691 persons whose names were documented by SOHR in 2017.
These statistics, documented by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, do not include the nearly 88,000 civilians killed under torture in the detention centers and prisons of Bashar al-Assad regime (SOHR obtained information about their death during the period of their detention.) The statistics also do not include the fate of more than 3,200 abducted civilians and fighters in the prisons the “Islamic State” organization, or the fate of more than 4,100 prisoners and missing members of the regime forces and loyalist militiamen, and more than 1,800 persons kidnapped by rebel and Islamic factions, “Islamic State” organization and Fateh al-Sham Front (former Jabhat Al-Nusra) on charges of loyalty to the regime.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that the real and actual number of people who were killed to be in the region of 105,000 persons, well above the numbers that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights was able to document, simply due to the extreme secrecy on the number of casualties by the warring parties; Furthermore, the Observatory has been unable to document many civilians deaths due to the difficulty of reaching some remote areas in Syria.
Additionally, the ongoing military operations, shelling, bombardment and various explosions have injured more than 2,000,000 Syrian civilians with varying injuries, wounds and permanent disabilities.
About 12,000,000 other civilians, including hundreds of thousands of children and women were displaced. Infrastructure, hospitals, schools, and private and public property have been substantially damaged or destroyed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also meticulously documented, in spredsheets, the death toll according to the ‘perpetrator’ category. A breakdown of total number of civilian deaths of 115,490 by the ‘perpetrator’ category is as follows:
- Civilians killed by Al-Assad regime forces and Syrian and non-Syrian loyalist militiamen: 45,188 civilians, of whom 27,834 were men, 10,874 children under the age of eighteen and 66,480 females over the age of eighteen.
- Bashar al-Assad’s regime warplanes and helicopter: 26,280 civilians, of whom 16,588 were men, 5,926 children under the age of eighteen and 3,766 females over the age of eighteen.
- Death toll in regime detention centers and prisons: 16,152 civilians of whom 15,963 were young and old men, 125 children under the age of eighteen, and 64 females over the age of eighteen.
Death toll by foreign powers, intervening in Syria under the pretext of helping the Syrian people to achieve justice get rid of oppression, is as follows:
- Russian missiles and airstrikes: 8,427 civilians, of who 5,107 were old and young men, 2,040 children under the age of eighteen and 1,280 females over the age of eighteen.
- International Coalition bombardment: 3,833 civilians, of whom 2,150 were men, 972 children under the age of eighteen and 711 females over the age of eighteen.
- Attacks by Turkish forces and warplanes: 993 civilians, of whom 675 are old and young men, 193 children under the age of eighteen and 125 females over the age of eighteen.
- Turkish Jandarma (Border Guard Forces): 445 civilian, of whom 324 were young and old men, 79 children under the age of eighteen and 42 females over the age of eighteen.
- Israel’s ground and air attacks: eight civilians, of whom three were men, three children and two women.
Death toll caused by various ‘anti-regime’ formations and groups such as ISIS, opposition factions, Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), and other groups in Syria:
- Opposition factions: 7,981 civilians, of whom 6,019 were men, 1,217 children under the age of eighteen and 745 females over the age of eighteen.
- ISIS: 6,183 civilians, of whom 5,266 were men, 520 children under the age of eighteen and 397 females over the age of eighteen.
Infographic shows total death toll since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution
Infographic shows total yearly death toll since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution
Infographic shows civilian yearly death toll since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution
A chart shows total yearly death toll since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution
Infographic shows total yearly death toll in details since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution