{"id":27595,"date":"2019-01-01T00:22:51","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T00:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27595"},"modified":"2019-01-01T00:22:51","modified_gmt":"2019-01-01T00:22:51","slug":"syrian-war-claimed-20000-lives-in-2018-says-monitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27595","title":{"rendered":"Syrian war claimed 20,000 lives in 2018, says monitor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT:\u00a0Syria\u2019s nearly eight-year-old conflict saw its lowest annual death toll in 2018 as the regime reasserted its authority over swathes of territory, a war monitor said on Monday.<\/p>\n

\nA total of 19,666 people were killed this year as a result of the conflict, which erupted in 2011, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported.<\/p>\n

\n\u201c2018 was the lowest annual toll since the start of the conflict,\u201d Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.<\/p>\n

\nThe Britain-based monitor relies on a vast network of sources across Syria to document the war that broke out after the brutal repression of nationwide anti-regime protests in 2011.<\/p>\n

\nThe death toll for 2017 stood at more than 33,000 and the highest annual figure was reached in 2014 \u2014 the year Daesh proclaimed a \u201ccaliphate\u201d over large parts of Syria and neighboring Iraq \u2014 when 76,000 people were killed.<\/p>\n

\nAmong those killed in 2018 were 6,349 civilians, 1,437 of them children, Abdel Rahman said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cMost of those killed during the first part of the year were killed in regime and Russian bombardment of opposition areas, including Eastern Ghouta,\u201d Abdel Rahman said. \u201cThe majority of those killed in the second half of the year were killed in coalition airstrikes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\nThe first months of 2018 were marked by major Russian-backed government operations to retake opposition bastions in and around the capital Damascus. The bloodiest of them was an assault on Eastern Ghouta, a densely populated area east of Damascus that remained besieged for years.<\/p>\n

\nBattle against Daesh<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nThe most active front of the past few months has been the battle against the remnants of Daesh in eastern Syria.<\/p>\n

\nThe Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by a US-led coalition carrying out airstrikes, launched an offensive on Sept. 10.<\/p>\n

\nMilitants defending the last rump of their once sprawling proto-state, near the Iraqi border along the Euphrates River, have put up fierce resistance but seem close to collapsing. While fighting has ended or is winding down in several parts of the country, 2019 could see its share of military flare-ups.<\/p>\n

\nBesides the continued threat posed by Daesh sleeper cells even after it loses its last pocket in eastern Syria, two other areas remain of concern.<\/p>\n

\nTurkey has threatened a major offensive against the Kurdish militia that controls regions along its border in northeastern Syria.<\/p>\n

\nThe announcement made by US President Donald Trump two weeks ago that he had ordered a full troop pullout from Syria left the US-led coalition\u2019s Kurdish allies more exposed.<\/p>\n

\nThousands of opposition fighters also remain in Idlib, a northern province where many of them were transferred as a result of deals to end government assaults on other areas across the country.<\/p>\n

\nUnder an agreement reached in Russia, Turkey was tasked with disarming some of the groups active in Idlib but little progress has been achieved.<\/p>\n

\nPresident Bashar Assad has consistently said that his forces would seek to reconquer the entire Syrian territory.<\/p>\n

\nAccording to the Observatory, the government and its allies now controls 60.2 percent of Syrian territory, while the SDF hold 28.8 percent.<\/p>\n

\nThe Kurds last week asked for the regime\u2019s help against the threat of a Turkish offensive, a move that will put pay to their ambitions of increased autonomy.<\/p>\n

\nBy comparison, the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project puts the number of conflict-related deaths in Afghanistan at more than 40,000 this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT:\u00a0Syria\u2019s nearly eight-year-old conflict saw its lowest annual death toll in 2018 as the regime reasserted its authority over swathes of territory, a war monitor said on Monday. A total of 19,666 people were killed this year as a result of the conflict, which erupted in 2011, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":27596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}