More than 4,360 killed: Toll of conflict in Syria in 2023

More than 4,360 people were killed in Syria during the year 2023, as reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Sunday. 

The year 2022 witnessed approximately 3,800 deaths, marking the lowest annual toll since the conflict erupted in the country in 2011, according to the Observatory. 

The toll for 2023, according to the Observatory, includes 1,889 civilians, including 241 women and 307 children. Among the fatalities were 898 members of the regime forces and around 600 fighters affiliated with them, of various Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities. 

The remaining casualties are distributed among ISIS elements, opposition factions, the Syrian Democratic Forces, Kurdish units, and formations working with them. 

On Sunday, the Observatory reported the death of three people, including a child, in a rocket attack carried out by regime forces on a popular market and residential areas in the city of Idlib. Fourteen other people were injured, including children. 

The intensity of the battles has gradually diminished over the past three years in several areas, especially in the province of Idlib (northwest), where Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra Front) controls about half of its territory along with parts of neighboring provinces. A ceasefire has been in place in the region since March 2020, under a Turkish-Russian agreement. 

On Saturday, 25 Iran-backed fighters were killed in airstrikes believed to have been carried out by Israeli planes in eastern Syria, with later Israeli strikes killing four fighters from Iran-backed groups in the north of the country. 

Israel conducted dozens of airstrikes in Syria last year, mainly targeting Iranian and Hezbollah-affiliated objectives, including warehouses, weapons, and ammunition shipments, as well as Syrian army positions. 

Since the declaration of the defeat of the Islamic State in Syria in 2019, fighters who primarily retreated to remote areas in the desert continue to carry out operations, targeting Kurdish fighters and government forces. 

Large areas containing agricultural plains, oil and gas wells remain outside government control, including Kurdish-controlled regions (northeast), areas in Idlib and its surroundings, and others under the control of factions loyal to Ankara in the north of the country. 

Since its outbreak in 2011, the conflict in Syria has resulted in the death of more than half a million people, causing immense damage to infrastructure and the economy, and forcing more than half of the population to either internally displace or seek refuge abroad. 

Away from the ongoing conflict, the country experienced an additional toll of casualties during 2023 due to the destructive earthquake that struck Syria and neighboring Turkey in February, resulting in the deaths of around 6,000 people in Syria. 

AFP