The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Total death toll | Over 606,000 people killed across Syria since the beginning of the “Syrian Revolution”, including 495,000 documented by SOHR

As military operations in Syria have subsided and with the Syrian Observatory believing in the necessity of holding all perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity accountable, we, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, have exerted diligent efforts since the beginning of 2021 to document the fatalities who were killed since the beginning of the “Syrian Revolution” and whose death had been verified. However, SOHR previously could not get all details on the circumstances of their death.

Despite all difficulties, obstacles and extreme pressure practiced upon SOHR, the documentation team of the Syrian Observatory, after devoting their energies all along six months, managed to document 105,015 fatalities, including 24,103 civilians, among them there were 2,748 children and 1,249 women, whom SOHR had already mentioned, but it could not document them before 2021. The breakdown of these fatalities was as follows:

• 31,227 civilians, including 214 children under the age of 18, were killed under torture in regime prisons.

• 9,944 civilians, including 2,321 children under the age of 18 and 1,139 females over the age of 18, were killed by regime forces.

• 932 civilians, including 213 children under the age of 18 and 110 females over the age of 18, were killed by rebel and Islamic factions and jihadist groups.

• 25,000 fighters of rebel and Islamic factions, and they are as follows: 15,876 fighters were killed in clashes and aerial and artillery bombardment, and 9,124 fighters under torture in regime’s prisons.

• 955 regime army defectors died under torture in regime’s prisons.

• 22,597 regime soldiers.

• 14,360 regime-backed Syrian militiamen.

Accordingly, the number of fatalities documented by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights across Syria since the beginning of the Syrian revolution on March 15, 2011, to May 30, 2021 jumps to 494,438 people.

A breakdown of the overall death toll was as follows:

• Civilians: 159,774 Syrians, they were: 119,591 men, 25,048 children under the age of eighteen and 15,135 women over the age of eighteen

• Syrian fighters of rebel and Islamic factions and other various factions, movements, and organizations: 79,844

• Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) and Kurdish units: 12,926

• Regime army defectors: 3,588

• Bashar al-Assad’s regime forces: 91,031

• National Defence Forces (NDF) fighters and Syrian regime loyalists: 66,995

• Lebanese Hezbollah: 1,707

• Non-Syrian militiamen loyal to the regime forces of the Shiite community: 8,593, of whom there were 264 were Russian soldiers and mercenaries

• Turkish soldiers: 215

• Jihadists of Hayyat Tahrir Al-Sham (former Nusra Front), and other jihadi organizations: 27,765

• ISIS members: 40,628

• Non-Syrian fighters of SDF: 936

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has been unable to document the number of deaths of the International Coalition, due to the extreme secrecy shrouding their missions and operations. While the number of unidentified people whose death have been documented by pictures and videos has reached 436.

These statistics, documented by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, do not include the following:

• Over 47,000 civilians killed under torture in the detention centers and prisons of Bashar al-Assad’s regime (SOHR obtained information about their death during the period of their detention).

• Over 3,200 fighters of Kurdistan Workers’ Party, who were killed while fighting alongside Syria Democratic Forces.

• More than 3,200 abducted civilians and fighters in the prisons the “Islamic State” organization

• More than 4,100 prisoners and missing members of the regime forces and loyal militiamen.

• Over 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 Syria of nearly 53,000, well above the numbers that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has been able to document, simply due to the extreme secrecy surrounding 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 2.1 million Syrian civilians with varying injuries, wounds and permanent disabilities.

About 13,000,000 other civilians, including hundreds of thousands of children and women, have been displaced. Furthermore, infrastructure, hospitals, schools, and private and public property have been substantially damaged or destroyed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also meticulously documented, in spreadsheets, the death toll according to the ‘perpetrator’ category. A breakdown of total number of civilian deaths of 159,774 by the ‘perpetrator’ category was as follows:

• By al-Assad regime forces and Syrian and non-Syrian loyalist militiamen: 56,358 civilians, 35,188 young and adult men, 13,386 children under the age of eighteen and 7,784 females over the age of eighteen.

• By Bashar al-Assad’s regime jets and helicopter: 26,408 civilians, 16,653 men, 5,966 children under the age of eighteen and 3,789 females over the age of eighteen.

• In regime detention centers and prisons: 47,488 civilians 47,085 young and adult men, 339 children under the age of eighteen, and 64 females over the age of eighteen.

Civilian death toll by foreign powers, intervened in Syria under the pretext of “helping the Syrian people to achieve justice and to get rid of oppression”, was as follows:

• By Russian ground and aerial attacks: 8,672 civilians, 5,252 adult and young men, 2,099 children under the age of eighteen and 1,321 females over the age of eighteen.

• By International Coalition bombardment: 3,847 civilians, 2,162 men, 973 children under the age of eighteen and 712 females over the age of eighteen.

• In attacks by Turkish forces and fighter jets: 1,017 civilians, 687 adult and young men, 200 children under the age of eighteen and 130 females over the age of eighteen.

• Turkish Jandarma (Border Guard Forces): 468 civilian, 339 young and adult men, 86 children under the age of eighteen and 43 females over the age of eighteen.

• Civilian death toll by various ‘anti-regime’ formations and groups such as opposition factions, Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), and other groups in Syria: 9,062 civilians, 6,742 men, 1,448 children under the age of eighteen and 872 females over the age of eighteen.

• Civilians killed by the “Islamic State” (ISIS): 9,062 civilians, 6,742 men, 548 children under the age of eighteen and 417 females over the age of eighteen.

• Israel’s ground and aerial attacks: 13 civilians, seven men, three children and three women.