Monitor: Majority of Slain in Syrian Civil War Were Pro-Assad Fighters

Over 120,000 Assad Fighters Slain

Massive death toll estimates have been the order of the day in Syria for quite some time, but little thought it given on who was killed. Rebel mouthpiece the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights today issued a report on the numbers.

According to the report, the vast majority of the people killed in the civil war, some 120,000 out of the 190,000 killed overall, are labeled “pro-Assad fighters,” including both troops and militias.

It’s a trend that’s been continuing throughout the war, with figures on the most recent five months detailing 11,000 pro-Assad fighters, including 5,631 soldiers, killed in the fighting.

Splits among fighters who are not military personnel will inevitably contentious, as both sides are forever labeling people they killed combatants for the sake of avoiding international criticism.

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.