After endless years of deadly fighting and shelling in the war that erupted after a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011, hostilities have largely ceased in the past three years.
At least 3,825 people were killed in Syria’s armed conflict in 2022, the lowest toll since it broke out in 2011, according to data released by the non-governmental Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Last year, the NGO had initially announced a death toll of 3,746 in 2021, which it then said was the lowest, before updating it to 3,882.
After endless years of deadly fighting and shelling in the war that erupted after a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011, hostilities have largely ceased in the past three years.
But local and sporadic fighting continues to break out, while jihadist attacks are carried out mainly in the eastern part of the country.
Jihadist organizations and foreign forces have been involved in this war that has torn Syria apart.
Bashar al-Assad’s regime has regained control of most of Syrian territory.
However, Kurdish armed groups control vast areas in the north and northeast of the country.
While about half of Idlib province (northwest) and some areas in the neighboring provinces of Hama, Aleppo and Lattakia remain in the hands of the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, the former al-Qaeda arm in the country) and other rebel groups.
Although government troops, backed by Russia’s military, have sporadically targeted positions in Idlib, the ceasefire agreement struck by the Russian and Turkish governments is generally being respected.
Neighboring Turkey has deployed its troops inside Syria, in border areas. The US also maintains troops on Syrian soil in the north and northeast, while Russia and Iran militarily support the regime of their ally President Assad.
The casualties in 2022 included 1,627 civilians, including 321 children, according to data compiled by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based NGO that relies on a wide network of sources in the war-torn country. Of the civilians, 209—almost 50% were children—were killed by the detonation of mines and other explosive devices.
Among the combatants, 627 members of regime forces and 217 members of allied groups were killed. Also, 387 fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (a Kurdish-dominated faction) and allied organizations were killed. In the ranks of the jihadists, the losses exceeded 500.
The director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP at the weekend that much of the death toll in 2022 was due to the ongoing chaos, dozens of airstrikes launched by Israel, as well as attacks by Islamic State. (IS) in areas in the Syrian desert.
The war in Syria has claimed the lives of an estimated half a million people and uprooted millions more.
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