Over 1,000 civilians were killed in Syria in 2023, mostly by Syrian regime forces and allied militias, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said on 1 January.<\/p>\n
SNHR said that killing “has been committed in a systematic manner primarily by Syrian regime forces and pro-regime militias”.<\/p>\n
Among those killed were over 250 children, as well as more than 130 people died as a result of torture. The Syrian regime also arbitrarily arrested over 2,300 people in 2023.<\/p>\n
The rights group added that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) killed the second highest number of civilians, followed by Russian forces and the former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).<\/p>\n
Last year saw almost the same number of civilians killed across Syria as in 2022.<\/p>\n
Syria has been engulfed in violence since the regime brutally cracked down on peaceful protesters in 2011. Since then, hundreds of thousands have been killed, with the most deaths attributed to the Syrian regime itself.<\/p>\n
According to SNHR, the Syrian regime does not issue death certificates for the majority of those it kills, except in very narrow circumstances. Most families of those killed do not request death certificates from the regime for fear of being associated with a dissident or opponent to the regime.<\/p>\n