The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said in a legal report coincides with the UN’s annual Universal Children’s Day that at least 29,017 children have been killed in Syria since the beginning of the popular uprising in March 2011.
The report documents the deaths of 22,753 children by Syrian Regime forces between March 2011 and November 20, 2019, including 186 who suffocated to death as a result of chemical attacks. The report also documents that at least 404 children were killed in attacks in which the Syrian regime used cluster munitions or as a result of explosions of old cluster munition remnants, and 305 children died due to food and medicine shortages in many areas that have been under siege since March 2011. The report also documents at least 1,141 incidents of attacks on schools by Syrian Regime forces during the same period.
At least 3,618 children are still detained or forcibly disappeared in the Syrian regime detention centers between March 2011 and November 20, 2019. In addition, child conscription by regime forces since the beginning of 2013 has resulted in the deaths of at least 37 children on the battlefield.
The Russian forces have killed 1,928 children since the start of Russia’s military intervention in Syria, including 67 children who were killed as a result of 236 cluster munitions attacks. The report also notes that at least 201 incidents of attacks on schools were carried out by Russian forces since the start of its military intervention in Syria in September 2015, in addition to displacing tens of thousands of children as a result of its military operations.
The report also outlines the violations by Syrian Democratic Forces in areas under their control, such as extrajudicial killings and forced conscription; the report reveals that 214 children had been killed by these forces since January 2014, and that 722 children are still detained or forcibly disappeared in the SDF detention centers.
Of the 86 cases of child conscription carried out by the SDF since 2014, the report notes that approximately 23 of these were killed on the battlefield.
Daesh has killed 956 children have been killed by ISIS since April 2013 as a result of indiscriminate shelling, clashes, bombings, executions, and mine-planting before withdrawing from areas under its control. ISIS still has at least 326 children who are still detained or forcibly disappeared. As the report states, at least 25 incidents of attacks on schools have been carried out by the group since its establishment.
Also, the indiscriminate shelling by Hay’at Tahrir al Sham during its attacks mainly on Armed Opposition-held areas as well as clashes in populated areas have resulted in the deaths of at least 64 children since the establishment of Jabhat al Nussra (now known as HTS) in January 2012 until November 20, 2019; at least 29 children are still detained or forcibly disappeared by HTS, while the report documents three incidents of attack on schools carried out by HTS.
The report adds that 924 children were killed as a result of attacks by US-led coalition since the start of their intervention in Syria on September 23, 2014, until November 20, 2019, while the report documents at least 25 incidents of attack on schools by US-led coalition during the same period.
The report also documents the deaths of 984 children by factions of the Armed Opposition, most of whom were killed as a result of indiscriminate shelling carried out by opposition forces on areas under the control of Syrian Regime forces, particularly with mortar shells, while five of them were killed during their participation in the battlefields alongside factions of the Armed Opposition.
Meanwhile,, 348 children are still detained or forcibly disappeared in detention centers controlled by factions of the Armed Opposition, noting that SNHR has documented 35 attacks on schools carried out by faction of the Armed Opposition.
The report further documents the deaths of at least 1,194 children since March 2011, as well as 60 incidents of attack on schools, at the hands of other parties.
Eight years of war in Syria have killed 560,000 people and driven half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes, including more than 6 million as refugees to neighbouring countries.
Zaman Al Wasl
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