Friday, January 9, 2015

At Least 4,358 Dead Last Month in Syria, NGO Says

1/9/2015

BEIRUT – At least 4,358 people died during the month of December as civil war raged on in Syria, an increase of 138 in the number of conflict-related deaths registered for November, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Thursday.

Of those killed, at least 1,052 were civilians, including 156 children and 9 women, and 230 members of Al-Shaitat tribe, a rival of the Islamic State jihadist group in the northeast province of Deir al-Zur.

Islamist groups accounted for at least 1,352 of those killed in December, including members of IS, and the Al Nusra Front, the Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria.

On the government’s side, 1,304 casualties were reported, with regular soldiers accounting for 682 of the total plus 522 civilians fighting alongside the Damascus regime, five fighters in the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and 65 from other nationalities.

In addition, there are eight fatalities whose identity has not been clarified yet.

The NGO did not rule out possibilities that the death toll might be 1,000 higher that it has been able to confirm, because of the secrecy maintained by all the parties regarding their losses.

According to figures verified by the United Nations, over 200,000 people have died since civil war broke out in Syria in March 2011.


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