Nearly 8,000 Syrians Killed Since Assad’s Ouster

Date: 09 June 2025 - 22:01

News ID: ۱۴۰۴۴۳

LONDON (Dispatches) -- At least 7,670 people, mainly civilians, have been killed in Syria since the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government and the establishment of a takfiri-linked authority, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.
According to the war monitor, the number includes more than 2,130 “extrajudicial executions” and “identity-based killings.” It warned of a “pattern of organized violence” across the country.
The SOHR report documents “the killing of 7,670 people across Syria from 8 December 2024 to 6 June 2025,” adding that among those killed are “5,784 civilians, including 306 children and 422 women.”
SOHR warned that “this grim toll is a result of ongoing violence and violations by local and external parties, alongside widespread security chaos,” which reflects “the fragility of the security situation and the increasing danger to the most vulnerable constituents of society.”
The over 2,130 executions were “committed in brutal ways.”
In March this year, the ruling Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) forces carried out a series of brutal massacres targeting Alawite civilians on the Syrian coast. HTS authorities said they would launch a probe, the results of which have not been made clear. SOHR says “1,726 liquidations” were recorded during the March massacres against Alawites.
Unofficial estimates at the time said the number could be way higher, possibly several thousand. The killings were carried out in response to an armed uprising against the HTS regime launched by elements of the former government’s armed forces.
The UK-based monitor went on to say that since the collapse of the Assad government, 1,886 non-civilian combatants have been killed, including 496 members of the Syrian Defense and Interior Ministries. Additionally, 627 members of various armed factions, many linked to the new authorities in Damascus, were also among those killed.
Over 250 members of the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia, the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), have been killed as well, according to SOHR.
SOHR notes that 75 percent of all the deaths are civilians.
The new military in Syria is dominated by militants of the HTS, a former Al-Qaeda branch with a history of war crimes and violent, sectarian ideology. Several other extremist factions, including notorious groups such as Jaish al-Islam, have been incorporated into the forces as well.
Alawites continue to be targeted by HTS forces and groups under their command. In the last five days, at least 18 Alawites have been killed in a new wave of violence targeting the minority group.
Meanwhile, the country faces a widespread Israeli occupation and regular bombardment.
The new SOHR report comes as Syria is being pulled out of years of isolation – with the U.S., UK, and EU taking steps to lift the sanctions on the country, which had been imposed for 14 years.
The EU is set to provide Syria with nearly $200 million (€ 175 million) to boost reconstruction, the health sector, agriculture, and the country’s economy, EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica announced while visiting Damascus on 4 June.
Syria’s de facto ruler Abu Muhammad al-Jolani – a former Al-Qaeda and Daesh chief– has met with world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Donald Trump.
On Monday, reports said Syria is rejoining the SWIFT payment system as Damascus implements political conditions set by Washington, chief among them the expulsion of Palestinian resistance factions and early gestures toward normalization with Israel.
Syria was last linked to SWIFT in 2011, the year that the U.S.-backed regime change war on Syria was launched.
As part of this broader strategy, Syria has signed a $7 billion energy deal with Qatar, reopened its long-dormant Damascus Securities Exchange, and launched a $300 million fiber-optic project with Persian Gulf telecom firms to help resuscitate its battered economy.