Syrian civil war killed more than 528,500: monitor

DAMASCUS: More than 528,500 people were killed in the Syrian civil war, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said on Wednesday.

The overall toll includes thousands killed since 2011 that were only confirmed dead recently, with access to detention centres and mass graves easier following the rebel overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

The Britain-based monitory said 6,777 people, more than half of them civilians, were killed in 2024 in fighting in Syria.

AFP was unable to independently verify these figures.

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Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011 after the government brutally repressed pro-democracy protests triggering a devastating conflict that pushed millions to flee abroad and drew in foreign powers.

Last year, 3,598 civilians, including 240 women and 337 children were killed across Syria, according to the Observatory.

In addition, 3,179 combattants were killed, the monitor said, including soldiers from “the old regime”, but also “armed groups”.

In 2023, the Observatory reported 4,360 people killed, including nearly 1,900 civilians.

In December, rebels overthrew Assad, seizing power in a rapid offensive that ended more than 50 years of the family’s iron-fisted rule.

Since 2011, the monitor with a network of sources inside Syria has recorded more than 64,000 deaths in Assad’s prisons “due to torture, medical negligence or poor conditions” in the jails.