258 people killed, injured in Syria during 1st half of July

In the first half of July, Syria witnessed a decrease in the number of human rights violations by three percent. Meanwhile, the escalation between the parties to the conflict in the country decreased by about 61 percent. Also, the Islamic State (ISIS) activity decreased by about 20 percent. While the number of arrests increased by about 38 percent compared to the first half of June, based on data recorded by the Monitoring and Documentation Department of North Press.

This report addresses the most prominent human rights violations recorded since the beginning of July based on information obtained by the Department from a network of field sources in various Syrian territories. The report includes the toll of human rights violations carried out by all parties to the conflict, including killings, abductions, torture, arbitrary arrests, indiscriminate shelling, and ISIS activity.

The Department recorded 258 civilian and military casualties, 125 of which were killed, and 133 were wounded. The death toll was distributed among the following cities, where the highest number of victims were recorded in the city of Daraa with 51 people, followed by the city of Aleppo 39 people, then Deir ez-Zor 33, Idlib 31, Hasakah 25, the northern countryside of Aleppo 22, Raqqa 15, Hama 13, Latakia 11, Homs nine, Qamishli three, two each in Suwayda and Kobani, and one each in Damascus and Tartus.

158 civilian casualties were recorded, 67 were killed, including eight children and 11 women, and 91 were wounded, including 13 children and eight women. Most victims were extrajudicially killed and injured by unidentified individuals and military personnel affiliated with one of the parties to the conflict due to the absence of censorship, increased security chaos, and impunity.

The number of military victims reached 100, including 58 dead and 42 wounded. They varied between the four zones of control [those of the government, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front), Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)]. The casualty’s toll of government forces reached 23 dead and 12 wounded. Six fighters of the SDF were killed. Six militants of the HTS were killed and ten were wounded. As for the SNA militants, 13 were killed and nine were wounded, and two of the local armed groups in Daraa were killed and another was wounded.

Additionally, eight non-Syrian militants were killed and ten others were wounded.

Unlike the previous months in which the soldiers died and were injured due to the bombing, most of them during the first half of July were killed and injured as a result of direct targeting and clashes.

Among the recorded number of victims, 21 people were killed and injured due to remnants of war, 10 individuals were killed, including a woman, a man and eight military personnel. Additionally, 11 were injured, including one child, four men, and six military personnel. 

Meanwhile, toll of shelling cases between parties to the conflict in Syria and the number of victims has decreased by about 61 percent, recording 16 shelling cases against the government forces’ sites, 15 of which were carried out by the HTS, and one by Israel. As for the government forces, they targeted 33 sites of the HTS, 13 sites of the Turkish-backed opposition, including a Turkish base in the northern countryside of Aleppo. The Turkish forces also targeted 18 locations in northeastern Syria with 44 attacks, in which a man, a woman and a soldier were killed, and 12 others were wounded, including a woman and two children.

Regarding to arrests, the toll of arrests increased compared to the last month by about 38 percent, as 204 people were arrested in Syria, 90 of whom were arrested by the HTS, including 17 women and three children who were accompanied by their mothers, most of them were accused of opposing the HTS, inciting against it and threatening internal security.

The SNA arrested 34 people under the pretext of dealing with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), including the people who were deported from Turkey.

The Turkish forces also arrested 38 people, 31 of whom were arrested while trying to cross into Turkish territory, and seven were arrested by Turkish intelligence, including people handed over by the HTS.

Meanwhile, the SDF arrested 13 people under different charges.

While the Syrian government arbitrarily arrested 21 people without mentioning the reasons for the arrest. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Crops (IRGC) arrested eight people affiliated with the Iranian-backed factions in Deir ez-Zor, without charging them.

ISIS activity in the region also witnessed a decrease by 20 percent during the first half of July, targeting civilians and military personnel, as it carried out four attacks in which two SDF members were killed and a child was wounded, one of the attacks was in Homs and three in Deir ez-Zor.

In turn, the SDF launched three security operations which resulted in the arrest of three people on charges of belonging to ISIS, and the injury of another. The Global Coalition also carried out an airdrop, in which a leader of ISIS was killed.

As for the repatriation of people of ISIS families, France repatriated 25 children and ten women from camps in northeastern Syria, while Canada repatriated two women and three children.

The SNA factions continued committing violations of human rights that resulted in 17 casualties; four people were killed including a women, two children, and 13 people were wounded including a woman.   

The department also recorded a royalty case where a sum of $40,000 was imposed on the residents of the village of Kakhera in Afrin region, north of Aleppo, by al-Amshat faction because they harvested the sumac crop without faction’s permission. Also, the SNA factions chopped 139 trees belonging to the residents of Afrin. Moreover, the department recorded a case of theft and seven cases of seizure carried out by the factions.

The violations carried out by the Turkish border guards against Syrian asylum seekers are still continuing, they killed a woman, wounded nine people, including a woman and two children, while trying to cross the Syrian-Turkish border illegally.