The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

SOHR: ISLAMIC STATE KILLED 625 PEOPLE IN SYRIA IN 2021

The jihadist group Islamic State (IS) has killed 625 people in Syria, mostly members of forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, in 2021, a significant drop from the 988 fatalities of the previous year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported today.

The UK-based NGO, with a wide network of partners on the ground, warned in a statement that in the last twelve months 396 pro-government troops and fighters of its allied militias have been killed in jihadist attacks and operations against them.

This balance includes the deaths recorded in the vast Badia desert, where IS remnants are concentrated nearly three years after their territorial defeat in Syria and where Damascus troops launch from time to time offensives against these cells with air support from Russian aviation.

In 2020, the terrorist group had managed to inflict more than 800 casualties among government ranks inside this region, of which about a hundred were pro-Iranian militiamen, allies of Al Asad, of foreign nationalities, according to the note.

Separately, IS has killed through armed attacks, assassinations and bombings and mine attacks 229 people this year in areas of the country’s northeast controlled by the Kurdish-led alliance, the Democratic Syrian Forces (DSF), which fought with the international coalition to defeat IS, the Observatory added.

The figure, which includes 136 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces and other military formations operating in the area and 93 civilians, five of them children, is very similar to the organization’s 208 casualties in that region in 2020.

Meanwhile, the NGO said, the Islamic State has suffered more than 500 deaths among its ranks over the year, virtually the same number as the previous year.

Nineteen of them died at the hands of the FSD and 484 in Badia as a result mainly in bombings by Russian aviation, which shot down 401 terrorists, while the remaining 83 died in operations by forces loyal to the Syrian president or in clashes with them.

On March 23, 2019, the Islamic State was territorially defeated in its last stronghold in eastern Syria, some five years after the expansion of the “caliphate”, although it still holds some positions, mainly in the desert.

The jihadists take advantage of the complex orography of the desert, which stretches across parts of several central provinces, and the multiple hideouts it offers to launch ambushes against enemy sides and safeguard their ranks.

 

 

SOURCE: STIGMATIS