Syrian Revolution 120 months on: 594,000 persons killed and millions of Syrians displaced and injured
March 14, 2021
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the death of 388,652 persons across Syria since the start of the Syrian Revolution on the 15th of March 2011 to the 14th of March 2021.
A breakdown of the overall death toll is as follows:
- Civilians: 117,388 Syrians, they are: 81,279 men, including 22,254 children under the age of eighteen and 13,855 women over the age of eighteen
- Syrian fighters of rebel and Islamic factions and other various factions, movements, and organizations: 54,779
- Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) and Kurdish units: 12,878
- Syrian army defectors: 2,632
- Bashar al-Assad’s regime forces: 68,308; fighters of NDF and Syrian regime loyalists: 52,568; fighters of the Lebanese Hezbollah: 1,705; and gunmen of non-Syrian nationalities loyal to the regime forces of the Shiite community: 8,564, of whom, 264 were Russian soldiers and mercenaries
- Turkish soldiers: 207
- Jihadists of Hayyat Tahrir Al-Sham (former Nusra Front), and other various jihadi organizations: 27,744
- ISIS members: 40,515
- 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.
- Unidentified people whose death have been documented by pictures and videos: 428; in addition to 3,691 persons whose names were documented by SOHR in 2017.
These statistics, documented by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, do not include the nearly 88,000 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.) The statistics also do not include the fate of more than 3,200 abducted civilians and fighters in the prisons the “Islamic State” organization, or the fate of more than 4,100 prisoners and missing members of the regime forces and loyalist militiamen, and more than 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 the region of 105,000 persons, 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. 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 117,388 by the ‘perpetrator’ category is as follows:
- Civilians killed by Al-Assad regime forces and Syrian and non-Syrian loyalist militiamen: 46,197 civilians, of whom 28,547 were men and young men, 11,034 children under the age of eighteen and 6,611 females over the age of eighteen.
- Bashar al-Assad’s regime jets and helicopter: 26,407 civilians, of whom 16,653 were men, 5,965 children under the age of eighteen and 3,789 females over the age of eighteen.
- Death toll in regime detention centers and prisons: 16,252 civilians of whom 16,062 were young and old men, 125 children under the age of eighteen, and 64 females over the age of eighteen.
Death toll by foreign powers, intervening in Syria under the pretext of helping the Syrian people to achieve justice and to get rid of oppression, is as follows:
- Russian missiles and airstrikes: 8,671 civilians, of who 5,233 were old and young men, 2,098 children under the age of eighteen and 1,321 females over the age of eighteen.
- International Coalition bombardment: 3,846 civilians, of whom 2,161 were men, 973 children under the age of eighteen and 712 females over the age of eighteen.
- Attacks by Turkish forces and warplanes: 1,013 civilians, of whom 687 are old and young men, 197 children under the age of eighteen and 129 females over the age of eighteen.
- Turkish Jandarma (Border Guard Forces): 461 civilian, of whom 333 were young and old men, 86 children under the age of eighteen and 42 females over the age of eighteen.
- Israel’s ground and air attacks: 12 civilians, of whom six were men, three children and three women.
Death toll caused by various ‘anti-regime’ formations and groups such as ISIS, opposition factions, Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), and other groups in Syria:
- Opposition factions: 8,110 civilians, of whom 6,118 were men, 1,231 children under the age of eighteen and 761 females over the age of eighteen.
- ISIS: 6,418 civilians, of whom 5,458 were men, 543 children under the age of eighteen and 417 females over the age of eighteen.
We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), renew our appeal to the UN and international community to intervene and find a lasting political solution to the Syrian crisis. We would like to see a genuine, maximum pressure put on all the parties involved in the Syrian conflict to stop all hostilities and violence; and we urge all humanitarian organisations, governmental or non-governmental, to double their efforts and help to the people of Syria: your action now will save lives.