The conflict in Syria killed 3.746 people in 2021, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced today, with the number showing a significant decrease compared to last year, when the lowest death toll since the beginning of the war was recorded.
Among the victims are 1.505 civilians, of whom 306 were children, according to the Observatory.
This figure is by far the lowest since the start of the war in Syria in 2011, and confirms the downward trend of recent years: 6.800 people were killed in 2020 and 10.000 in 2019.
According to the Observatory, mines and other explosive devices are responsible for 297 deaths.
Syria outnumbers Afghanistan in casualties from landmines and explosive remnants, the Mines Observatory, a non-governmental organization, said in November.
The intensity of the clashes, which began in 2011 after the violent suppression of anti-government protests, has decreased in the last two years.
Although government forces, backed by Russia, continue to occasionally bomb the rebel stronghold of Idlib province in northwestern Syria, the ceasefire agreement that has been signed is generally respected.
Islamic State fighters, who have gone underground since the fall of their caliphate in 2019, are also carrying out guerrilla attacks in eastern Syria.
A total of half a million people have been killed since the war in Syria, and it has caused the largest displacement of the population since World War II.
Source: RES-EAP