Baladi News – (Follow-ups)
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) stated on Friday that it has documented the killing of 1271 civilians in June 2016, which raises the number of civilian victims during the first half of 2016 to 6567 people killed “at the hands of the main influential parties in Syria.”
In its report published on Friday, the network referred to “the notable and relatively good decline in killing rates after the commencement of the Cessation of Hostilities statement on 27 February 2016 compared to the previous months since March 2011”
The report pointed out that this decline took place “especially in the areas controlled by armed opposition factions given that other areas, such as those controlled by the Democratic Union Parties and the Syrian regime, are not targeted with heavily and daily aerial bombing.”
The report added that “one day after the High Negotiation Committee decided to postpone its participation in Geneva talk on 19 April, government forces and Russian forces resumed bombing areas outside the Syrian regime’s control and the killing rates increased back to its former levels before the Cessation of Hostilities.”
In the same context, the network clarified that “3417 civilians were killed by government forces in the first half of 2016 including 590 children (four children are killed every day), 422 women, and no less than 230 individuals due to torture. The percentage of children and women among civilian victims is 30% which suggests that government forces are deliberately targeting civilians.”
Also, the report recorded that 1378 civilians including 310 children and 179 women were killed by “allegedly Russian forces,” meanwhile “Self-administration forces killed 78 civilians, including 10 children, three women, and two individuals due to torture.”
The report documented that “785 civilians were killed by extremist Islamic groups as follows: ISIS killed 764 civilians including 103 children, 146 women, and seven individuals due to torture, while Al-Nussra Front killed 21 civilians including two children, one woman, and two individuals due to torture.”
On the other hand, the report referred to “the killing of 462 civilians including 118 children, 109 women, and two individuals due to torture at the hands of armed opposition factions”, whereas “international coalition forces killed 127 civilians including 54 children and 22 women.”
The report also documented that “266 civilians including 70 children and 38 women who either drowned to death as they were feeling, or in bombings that were carried out by parties that SNHR has not been able to identify or by unknown armed groups to SNHR”