(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, DECEMBER 10 - Over half a million people
have been killed in seven years of war in Syria, the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Monday.
The conflict began in March 2011 and is still ongoing. Over
the years it has morphed from civil strife to a regional
conflict with armies and militias from other countries fighting
on Syrian soil.
SOHR has for the past 11 years has been monitoring violations
in Syria and has a large network of sources on the ground across
the country. It is headquartered in the UK and was founded by a
Syrian dissident in exile, but has repeatedly been cited even by
government-linked media when it denounced crimes committed by
opposition groups, US forces and radical groups.
SOHR said that at least 560,000 have been killed but that it
was able to fully document the deaths of only 367,965.
Of the 560,000, it said, 111,330 are civilians, including
20,819 under the age of 18 and 13,084 women.
Some 65,048 Syrian soldiers have been killed and 50,296
members of militias backing them.
A total of 65,108 members of radical groups - including both
those linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS) - have
also been killed.
As concerns opposition fighters, 63,561 including those
operating under the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
have been killed.
At least 1,675 fighters from the Lebanese Hezbollah - the
Shia movement allied with Damascus and Iran - have also lost
their lives in the fighting.
Of the over 500,000 killed, some 104,000 were tortured to
death in Syrian government jails. (ANSAmed).
