DAMASCUS (AFP/Arab News) – At least 3,825 people have died in the foreign-backed war in Syria in 2022, the lowest yearly toll since the start of the conflict more than a decade ago, a war monitor said Saturday.
The Britain-based so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had last year put the death toll at 3,746 throughout 2021, before revising it up to 3,882.
After years of deadly battle and bombardments waged by foreign-backed terrorists and militants, the conflict has largely abated in the last three years.
Sporadic fighting at times breaks out and militant attacks continue, mainly in the east of the country.
Among those killed in 2022 were 1,627 civilians, including 321 children, according to the figures from the Observatory, which relies on sources on the ground in Syria.
Of the civilians killed, 209 people — about half of them children — were killed by mines or other explosive devices left by the terrorists.
In addition, 627 security force personnel were killed along with 217 other fighters loyal to the government of Bashar Assad, the Observatory said.
Some 387 members of the Kurdish-led so-called Syrian Democratic Forces and their allies were also among the dead, as well as more than 500 terrorists.
The director of the Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman, said a large number of the deaths occurred due to security chaos, dozens of strikes launched by the Zionist regime, and attacks by the Daesh group in the Syrian desert.
The war has killed nearly half a million people since it broke out over a decade ago, displacing almost half of Syria’s pre-war population.
Assad has retaken most of the territory initially lost to terrorists, though the SDF — which the government maintains a degree of cooperation with — continues to control areas in the north and northeast.
Turkey, a key player in the war, has repeatedly threatened to launch a ground incursion against the Kurds in recent months, having already pursued three such operations previously.
In addition, about half of the northwestern province of Idlib and areas bordering the neighboring provinces of Hama, Aleppo and Latakia are dominated by the terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other militant factions.
Meanwhile, a U.S. Central Command report has warned that Daesh has a potential army in waiting inside prison camps across Iraq and Syria.
About 30,000 former Daesh terrorists are imprisoned or detained in the two countries, with the group still presenting a threat to the region’s security, the military report said, according to The Times.
A further 25,000 children and families in Syria’s northeastern al-Hol camp also add to the potential for a Daesh resurgence, with fears that radicalization and extremism are growing within detention.