Lowest Monthly Death Toll in 9 Years of Syria War
The war in Syria killed 103 civilians in March, marking the lowest monthly non-combatant death toll since the start of the conflict in 2011, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday.
Of the total deaths, some 51 people were killed in shelling and air strikes by the Syrian regime, Agence France Presse quoted the Observatory as saying.
The bulk of the remaining casualties were caused either by explosive remnants or mysterious “assassinations”, the Observatory added.
The civilian death toll was more than double that of March in February, when a regime offensive on Syria’s last major opposition bastion was still in full swing.
According to the Observatory, the number of deaths that month stood at 275.
The war in Syria has left more than 380,000 people dead since it started nine years ago.
The highest civilian death toll recorded in a month since the start of the conflict was 1,590 in July 2016, when battles between opposition fighters and the regime raged in the northern province of Aleppo.
The United Nations has appealed for a nationwide ceasefire to tackle the novel coronavirus threat, while aid groups have warned of a health catastrophe if the pandemic hits overcrowded displacement camps or crammed regime prisons.
Source: Asharq Al-Awsat