An independent rights group said that the Assad regime and Russian forces were responsible for the majority of civilian casualties in Syria in January, noting that the areas covered by the ‘de-escalation zones’ agreement bore the brunt of the ongoing bombing campaign by the Assad regime and Russian air forces in the same month.
In a report released on Thursday, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that at least 774 civilians were killed in January 2018. It added that 550 people were killed by forces of the Assad regime and Russian alliance, most of whom were killed in the areas covered by the ‘de-escalation zones’ agreement. It noted that this figure accounted for 72 percent of the total number of victims.
According to the report, the Assad regime and Russian forces killed 232 civilians in Damascus and its suburbs, 223 in Idlib province, and 51 in Aleppo province.
The monitoring group said that the death toll in January included 66 civilians who were killed by extremist militant groups and 24 others who where killed in airstrikes by the international anti-ISIS coalition. The report also listed 13 civilians who were killed by militia of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and 119 others who were killed in attacks the groups said were untraceable.
The Network called on the UN Security Council to take further measures to hold “war criminals” accountable by referring the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC). (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
