Death in Syria – The New York Times

The constant violence has forced more than
four million to flee the country, fueling a
refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe.
The country is so dangerous that a definitive
tally of deaths is not possible, but several
groups are trying to document how many
Syrians have died, and what killed them.

Each of these dots represents
one person who was
killed during the conflict.

“With each passing day there are fewer
safe places in Syria,” Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro,
chairman of the United Nations panel
investigating human rights abuses in Syria,
wrote in a recent report. “Everyday
decisions — whether to visit a neighbor,
to go out to buy bread — have become,
potentially, decisions about life and death.”

Thousands of civilians have been victims of mass shootings and gunfire between government forces and insurgents. In one case documented by the United Nations, more than 100 people, including at least 49 children, were killed in Homs on May 25, 2012. Most were shot at close range.

The U.N. reports that armed opposition groups have also executed children, but lack of access in areas controlled by the Islamic State has prevented systematic documentation. “In places like Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, it’s almost impossible to verify the information,” said Bassam al-Ahmad, spokesman for the Violation Documentation Center in Syria.

Reported deaths caused by random shootings

or mass killings, March 2011 – Aug. 2015

Areas of ISIS

control and support

1,213 civilian

deaths

307 civ.

deaths

Fewer deaths have been reported in areas controlled by ISIS, where access to information is especially limited.

3,720 civ.

deaths

Both government and insurgent forces have used “weapons that are guaranteed to cause civilian damage,” said Geoffrey Mock, a Middle East specialist at Amnesty International. Children account for about 20 percent of these deaths.

The Syrian government has repeatedly fired imprecise rockets and unguided bombs, according to the United Nations and other monitoring groups. Insurgent groups have used so-called “hell cannons” — improvised artillery devices fitted with explosive gas canisters that cause widespread damage.

“What we are seeing in Syria is war crime on both sides,” Mr. Mock said.

Shelling from forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad in Aleppo’s Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood. Yaman Al Halabi/Reuters

Syrian warplanes and helicopters have blasted civilian targets like mosques, schools and shopping markets in insurgent-controlled areas with barrel bombs — large containers filled with explosives and projectiles — and other weapons. As the government lost control of the country, said Mr. Ahmad of the Violations Documentation Center, “they began using new tactics by dropping air bombs.” More than a quarter of the dead are children.

Civilian deaths caused by government air attacks

Government air attacks intensified in mid-2012, a little over a year after the war began.

The New York Times|Source: Violations Documentation Center

The United Nations and others have documented rampant use of torture by both government and opposition forces, including crimes against children targeted for appearing to be pro-government. In March, thousands of photos surfaced showing detainees who were said to have died in Syrian prisons. The photos were smuggled out of Syria by a former Syrian military photographer. Secretary of State John Kerry said that the photos showed evidence of torture.

The Syrian government has been accused of using chlorine-filled barrel bombs. An attack in 2013 killed hundreds of people (some estimates were upward of 1,500) in Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus controlled by the opposition, when the area was struck by several rockets containing sarin, a nerve agent known to be part of the Syrian military’s stockpile. There are also reports that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has used mustard gas in northern Syria.

Hundreds of people were killed in a nerve gas attack in the Ghouta region near Damascus. Bassam Khabieh/Reuters

The United Nations has accused the Syrian government of using attacks on hospitals as a “weapon of war.” Physicians for Human Rights documented nearly 300 attacks on hospitals through July, most of them carried out by pro-Assad forces in opposition-controlled areas.

The death toll, documented by the Syrian American Medical Society through January 2015, does not capture the many people — estimates range from 200,000 to more than 600,000 — who have been under siege for more than a year and are at risk of starving to death or dying from other preventable causes. The majority of those besieged are trapped by the Syrian government in the Damascus area, according to Valerie Szybala, the primary author of a report by the Syrian American Medical Society and executive directive of the Syria Institute, a new think tank.

Areas besieged

by government forces

The New York Times|Source: Syrian American Medical Society, East View Geospatial

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has estimated that 181 civilians have been killed in the coalition airstrike campaign against the Islamic State, as of mid-August. Other groups have given higher estimates, and all say that the United States and its allies understate the civilian toll. The United States Central Command says it has confirmed the deaths of only two civilians since the start of the campaign.

American-led airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria, by week

First week

of Oct. 2014

The New York Times|Source: United States Central Command