Assad regime, allies responsible for 91% of civilian deaths in Syria - rights group

The Syrian regime under President Bashar Al-Assad and its allies Iran and Russia are responsible for around 91 percent of civilian deaths during the country's decade-long civil war, a rights group reported.

The UK-based Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) compiled statistics for March 2011 to June 2022 and found that out of 228,893 civilians killed in the conflict, 200,391 were killed by the Syrian regime and Iranian militias and 6,928 were killed by Russian forces.

The remaining deaths are attributed to Islamic State, the US-led coalition, Syrian opposition factions and Kurdish militias.

SNHR also reported that the civilian deaths in the civil war included 29,791 children, out of which 84 percent were killed by the Assad regime and Russia.

The group said that airstrikes were the main cause of the civilian casualties over the past decade, with 70 percent of the deaths caused by aerial bombardments.

"Missiles, barrel bombs lead to massive destruction and lead to massive casualties," said SNHR's chairman and founder, Fadel Abdul Ghany.

Abdul Ghany said that a "a large percentage of these killings took place deliberately," and that they were "not just random shelling."