More than 4,360 people were killed in Syria during the year 2023, an annual toll of a conflict that has exhausted the country since 2011, according to what the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced on Sunday.

The year 2022 recorded about 3,800 deaths, an annual toll that was the lowest since the outbreak of conflict in the country in 2011, according to the Observatory.

The 2023 toll, according to the Observatory, includes 1,889 civilians, including 241 women and 307 children.

Among the dead were also 898 members of the regime forces and about 600 fighters from groups loyal to them of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities.

The rest of the dead are distributed among ISIS members, opposition factions, the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish units, and the formations working with them.

The Observatory reported on Sunday that three people, including a child, were killed in a missile attack carried out by regime forces on Saturday evening on a popular market and residential areas in the city of Idlib, and 14 other people, including children, were injured.

The intensity of the battles has gradually declined over the past three years in several areas, especially in Idlib Governorate (northwest), where Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (formerly the Al-Nusra Front) controls about half of its area along with parts of neighboring governorates. A ceasefire has been in effect in the region since March 2020, according to a Turkish-Russian agreement.

On Saturday, 25 pro-Iranian fighters were killed as a result of air strikes that the Observatory suggested were launched by Israeli aircraft in eastern Syria, and four fighters from Iranian-backed groups were later killed as a result of Israeli bombing in the north of the country.

During the past year, Israel launched dozens of air strikes in Syria, targeting mainly Iranian and Hezbollah targets, including warehouses and shipments of weapons and ammunition, but also Syrian army sites.

Since the announcement of the elimination of the Islamic State in 2019 in Syria, the organization’s fighters, who have mainly retreated to remote areas in the desert, have launched operations targeting especially Kurdish fighters and regime forces.

Large areas, including agricultural plains and oil and gas wells, are still outside the government’s control, most notably Kurdish-controlled areas (northeast), areas in and around Idlib, and others under the control of pro-Ankara factions in the north of the country.

Since its outbreak in 2011, the conflict in Syria has caused the death of more than half a million people, caused massive destruction to the infrastructure and economy, and pushed more than half of the population to be displaced within Syria or seek refuge outside it.

Aside from the ongoing conflict, the country witnessed an additional death toll during 2023 as a result of the devastating earthquake that struck Syria and neighboring Turkey in February, killing about 6,000 people in Syria.

(agencies)