Monitor: 115,000 Killed in Syria’s Civil War

Rebels Killed Nearly 50,000 Pro-Assad Fighters

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have issued a new report on its estimated death tolls for the 30-month Syrian Civil War, putting the overall death toll at 115,206, mostly combatants from either side but also a large civilian toll inflicted by both sides.

On the government’s side, 47,206 fighters were killed, 28,804 of them were regular troops, while 18,228 were members of pro-government militias and 174 were Hezbollah.

On the rebel side, 23,707 were killed. 17,071 “civilian fighters” were the bulk of them, but it also included 2,176 army defectors and 4,460 foreign fighters.

The civilian toll on top of this is another 41,533, and the split there is impossible to ascertain, but includes large numbers of Alawite and Christian civilians killed by rebels for being “pro-government,” and a lot of innocent bystanders simply killed in the fighting.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.