Highest annual death toll in three years | 4,361 people killed across Syria in 2023

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) documented the death of 4,361 people in 2023. A breakdown of these fatalities, according to the perpetrator and method of death categories, is as follows:

 

-Civilians: 1,889 people, including 307 children under the age of 18, and 241 women over the age of 18, and they are as follows:

 

• 413 civilians, including 35 children and 76 women, were murdered.

 

• 256 civilians, including 18 children and 24 women, were killed by explosions of old ordnance.

 

• 239 civilians, including 43 children and 11 women, were killed in infightings and indiscriminate gunfire.

 

• 203 civilians, including a woman, were killed by ISIS.

 

• 187 civilians, including 50 children and 28 women, were killed in bombardment and gunfire by regime forces.

 

• 109 civilians, including 21 children and 37 women, were killed in explosions of landmines and IEDs.

 

• 93 civilians, including three children and six women, were shot dead by unidentified persons.

 

• 66 civilians, including 15 children and eight women, were killed in unknown circumstances.

 

• 46 civilians, including 12 children and ten women, were killed by rebel and Islamist factions.

 

• 45 civilians died under torture in regime prisons.

 

• 36 civilians, including six children and seven women, were killed in airstrikes and bombardment by Turkish forces.

 

• 34 civilians, including three children and a woman, were killed by the Turkish border guards (Jandarma).

 

• 33 civilians, including four children and three women, were killed by Syria Democratic Forces (SDF).

 

• 30 civilians, including eight children and seven woman, were killed in Russian airstrikes.

 

• 30 civilians, including 13 children and ten women, died of poor health conditions.

 

• 13 civilians, including a child and a woman, were extrajudicially executed.

 

• 11 civilians, including six children, were killed in strikes by Jordanian forces.

 

• Six civilians, including two women, were killed by jihadists.

 

• Five civilians died under torture in factions’ prisons.

 

• Four civilians, including a woman, were killed in Israeli attacks.

 

• Two civilians, including a child, were killed in explosions of booby-trapped vehicles.

 

• One man was killed by International Coalition Forces.

 

• 27 civilians, including five children and six women, were killed in other circumstances.

 

 

 

-Non-civilians: 2,472:

 

• Regime forces: 898

 

• ISIS members: 94

 

• Syrian fighters of Islamist and rebel factions and other movements and organisations: 386

 

• Syrian members of the Popular Committees, National Defense Forces (NDF) and regime-backed militiamen: 342

 

• Jihadists: 44

 

• Members of Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) and affiliated military formations: 297

 

• Non-Syrian fighters of Syria Democratic Forces (SDF): 4

 

• Non-Syrian loyalists of Iranian and regime forces, mostly of the Shiite sect: 126

 

• Syrian loyalists of Iranian and regime forces, mostly of the Shiite sect: 121

 

• Turkish soldiers: 11

 

• Hezbollah: 30

 

• Regime army defectors: 1

 

• Russian soldiers: 7

 

• Members of Kurdish units: 17

 

• Others: 94

 

 

It is worth noting that this is the highest annual death toll since 2020 when SOHR documented the death of 6,762 people, while the lowest annual death toll ever was in 2022 with 3,825 fatalities.

 

The monthly death toll in 2023 is distributed in descending order as follows:

 

-October: 545 people:

 

• 238 civilians.

 

• 307 non-civilians.

 

 

-August: 440 people:

 

• 164 civilians.

 

• 276 non-civilians.

 

 

-September: 440 people:

 

• 113 civilians.

 

• 327 non-civilians.

 

 

-April: 409 people:

 

• 210 civilians.

 

• 199 non-civilians.

 

 

-March: 395 people:

 

• 195 civilians.

 

• 200 non-civilians.

 

 

-December: 381 people:

 

• 160 civilians.

 

• 221 non-civilians.

 

 

-November: 375 people:

 

• 143 civilians.

 

• 232 non-civilians.

 

 

-January: 309 people:

 

• 130 civilians.

 

• 179 non-civilians.

 

 

-February: 293 people:

 

• 177 civilians.

 

• 116 non-civilians.

 

 

-July: 291 people:

 

• 133 civilians.

 

• 158 non-civilians.

 

 

-June: 271 people:

 

• 124 civilians.

 

• 147 non-civilians.

 

 

-May: 212 people:

 

• 102 civilians, including 32 children and ten women.

 

• 110 non-civilians.

 

We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, call on the international community once again to work hard to stop the bloodshed in Syria. The people of Syria have been facing tyranny and oppression in their noble endeavour and cause of obtaining justice, democracy, freedom, and equality.

 

The Syrian Observatory renew its commitment to continue monitoring and documenting all the developments on the ground in Syria including, the massacres, violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the Syrian people, as well as publishing all relevant statistics and causalities of such heinous acts, and hope to help all the ongoing efforts of bringing the perpetrators to special international courts so that they do not escape justice for the crimes they committed against the people of Syria.