582 killed, 575 wounded in Syria in September 2023
Introduction
The number of victims of violations in Syria increased by 34 percent in September compared to August, whereas attacks against civilians dropped by 6 percent. The military escalation among parties to the conflict rose by 18 percent, resulting in the highest toll of military casualties since the beginning of 2023. Islamic State (ISIS) activity decreased by approximately 62 percent, and the rate of arrests dropped by 24 percent. All this was based on analysis of data recorded by the Monitoring and Documentation Department of North Press and compared to August data.
The monthly report of the Monitoring and Documentation Department presents the most prominent human rights violations documented and recorded in September based on information obtained by a network of field sources across Syria.
The report includes the toll of human rights violations, such as killings and arbitrary arrests by parties to the conflict, statistics of individuals who were killed by remnants of war, purposefully planted by some parties on the outskirts of areas under their control to protect against attacks, but subsequently cause monthly civilian casualties.
The report also shows the rate of indiscriminate shelling by controlling powers according to their location and its repercussions and impact on civilians and public property. It also covers ISIS activities and other issues that affect the rights of the Syrian people and disrupts security and stability.
Victims of violations in Syria
In September, the Monitoring and Documentation Department recorded the killing and injury of 1,157 individuals, both civilian and military, of which 582 were killed and 575 were wounded either by direct attacks and indiscriminate shelling, or by torture and other forms of inhumane treatment. All civilians were extrajudicially killed by parties to the conflict or by unidentified gunmen in light of the security chaos and multiple controlling powers, facilitating impunity due to absence of accountability.
Toll of victims
The number of civilian victims reached 379, where 120 were killed, including 19 children, 22 women, and 79 men, including two non-Syrian nationals), and 259 were wounded, including 61 children and 43 women. Civilian casualties in Syrian cities were recorded as follows:
Idlib Governorate recorded the highest number at 102, followed by Deir ez-Zor with 70, next came the northern countryside of Aleppo with 59, then Hasakah with 46, Raqqa with 35, Aleppo city with 31, Daraa with 17, Homs with 13, Hama with six, and five in each Qamishli and Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), four in Damascus, and one in each of Latakia and Suwayda.
As for military casualties, the total number amounted 778, with 462 killed and 316 injured. The casualties are distributed among the four controlling powers in Syria.
177 were killed from Syrian government forces, including 23 from its affiliated National Defense Forces (NDF), and 108 were injured, including 32 from the NDF.
As for Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA) 165 were killed and 118 were injured. Moreover, 51 militants from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front) were killed, including two non-Syrian nationals (an Iraqi and a Saudi), and 67 others were wounded, in addition to the killing of seven and injury of one individual from local groups. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) lost 55 fighters and 12 others were wounded. Seven militants from Iranian-backed militias were killed and 10 others were injured.
The number of casualties caused by remnants of war dropped by 20 percent compared to August. The Department documented the killing of 18 individuals, including a woman, two children, four men and 11 military personnel, and the injury of 22 people, including eight children, six men and eight military personnel.
The rate of shelling by parties to the conflict in Syria increased by 18 percent compared to August as a result of the military escalation and constant clashes. In government-held areas, 58 locations were shelled with 82 strikes in September. HTS targeted 49 locations with 64 strikes, Israel targeted three locations with three strikes, whereas SNA factions targeted one location with two strikes, local armed factions in Daraa targeted three locations with nine strikes, and an unidentified party targeted one location with three strikes. Government forces targeted one location in areas under their control in Daraa with one strike, which was the residence of a former leader of opposition factions.
The shelling that occurred in these areas caused 165 casualties, including 105 killed and 60 injured.
In HTS-held areas, 247 locations were hit with 708 strikes. The Syrian government targeted 232 locations with 681 strikes, Russia targeted 14 locations with 26 strikes, and unknown parties targeted one location with one strike. These strikes resulted in 105 casualties, with 41 killed and 64 injured.
As for SNA factions, 24 locations in areas under their control were targeted with 134 strikes. The government targeted seven locations with 48 strikes, Russia targeted one location with one strike, the SDF targeted 15 locations with 84 strikes, unidentified party targeted one location with one strike. These strikes resulted in 145 casualties, including 73 killed and 72 injured.
In areas held by the SDF, 51 locations were attacked with 52 strikes. The government forces and their affiliated factions targeted seven locations with six strikes, and SNA factions attacked 44 locations with 50 strikes.
The shelling in these areas resulted in 68 casualties, with 21 killed and 47 injured.
Turkish forces targeted 84 sites in northern Syria with 238 strikes, of which seven were carried out by drones. This resulted in the killing and injury of 19 individuals.
Arrests
In terms of arrests and enforced disappearances, the arrest rate dropped by 24 percent compared to August. The Monitoring and Documentation Department recorded the detention of 520 individuals in Syria by parties to the conflict. The highest percentage of arbitrary detention was recorded in HTS-held areas with 37 percent of the total rate of arrests. HTS detained 196 individuals, including nine women. The top accusations they were charged with were incitement against HTS. Next came HTS leaders and militants arrested under charges of espionage and collaboration with foreign entities, involvement in assassinations against HTS militants, photographing HTS posts and monitoring their activities, while others were arrested after being handed over by Turkish border guards.
In government-held areas, 15 individuals, including one child and one woman, were arrested. Additionally, Iranian-backed militias arbitrarily detained three individuals while passing through one of their checkpoints between the village of Hujayra and the town Sayyida Zainab in the south of Damascus for unknown reasons. As for the 12 individuals detained by government forces, they were mostly arbitrarily detained without arrest warrants. Among them were individuals accused of attempting to enter the city of Manbij illegally, in addition to other various charges.
SNA factions arrested 125 individuals, including 13 women and two children. Some were arrested under charges of collaborating with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), while others were arrested after being deported from Turkish territories. They also arrests some people under false and malicious charges following the clashes between the SDF and factions. Others were arrested for unknown reasons. Some of the detainees were SNA militants accused of sending confidential files to the SDF. In AANES-held areas, 96 individuals were arrested, nine of whom are ISIS suspects.
Turkish forces, including Intelligence and Turkish border guards, arrested 88 individuals, of whom 71 individuals, including five women and four children, were detained by Turkish border guards while trying to cross into Turkey. Whereas Turkish Intelligence arrested 17 individuals, including a child and a woman. All of the detainees, except for one person, were handed over by the Military Police faction in the cities of Tel Abyad and Sere Kaniye on charges of espionage for the SDF. They were transferred to a Turkish prison in the Turkish province of Şanlıurfa.
ISIS activity
ISIS attacks in Syria in September decreased by approximately 62 percent compared to August, with a total of eight attacks, with two in each of Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, Hasakah, and Homs. ISIS claimed responsibility for only three of them. They carried out four attacks against the SDF and two attacks against government forces and Iranian-backed militias.
ISIS activity in Syria resulted in 38 casualties, including 22 killed and 16 injured, either by direct attacks or through IEDs and mines.
Civilian casualties amounted to 13 killed and three injured, including one child. As for military personnel, nine were killed and 13 were injured.
The toll of security operations against ISIS was seven operations, during which 10 ISIS suspects were arrested. The SDF conducted six operations, four in collaboration with the US-led Global Coalition, including one airdrop operation. During these operations seven ISIS suspects were arrested.The Global Coalition also carried out an airdrop operation and arrested one ISIS suspect.
Violations of SNA and Turkish forces in Syria
During September, the SNA factions killed two individuals and wounded 46 others, including eight women and three children.
SNA factions also carried out two cases of appropriation of civilian properties in Afrin in the northern countryside of Aleppo. The Department recorded five cases of imposing royaltiesof various amountsby SNA factions on cotton farmers in the countryside of Sere Kaniye. One royalty was imposed by each the Military Police, Civil Police, Hamza Division, Sultan Murad faction, and Jaysh al-Sharqiya. Additionally, seven cases of robbery were recorded, along with the cutting of 144 fruitful and forest trees in Afrin by SNA factions.
Turkish forces continue to commit violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Syria by indiscriminately shelling areas in northeast Syria and directly targeting asylum seekers. These violations resulted in 69 casualties, where 13 were killed, eight of whom were military personnel, and 56 were injured, including seven women and one child.
Turkish border guards killed three asylum seekers and wounded 19 others, including two women, by directly shooting them with live bullets while they tried to cross the Syrian-Turkish border. They also killed one civilian and injured 27 others, including five women and one child, by assaulting and beating them.
Turkish forces’ shelling on areas in northern Syria caused 19 casualties, including one killed and 10 injured, whereas eight SDF fighters were killed.
International and regional actions on Syria
In September, several human rights reports, statements, political and humanitarian resolutions related to Syria were issued. Various UN and international meetings were held, in addition to the occurrence of changes in stances and decisions concerning the country.
On Sep. 29, Human Rights Watch Organization responded to Cyprus’s call to the European Union to reassess Syria’s status as safe. The Organization stressed that Syria remains unsafe for the return of refugees, stating, ” Human Rights Watch has documented how Syrian security agencies arbitrarily detained, kidnapped, tortured, and killed refugees who returned to Syria between 2017 and 2021. That pattern of abuse and persecution has not ceased. As recently as July, Human Rights Watch found that returnees had been tortured in Syrian military intelligence’s custody and conscripted to serve in Syria’s military reserve force.”
Reuters reported that the International Court of Justice will consider, on Oct. 10 and 11, requests by the Netherlands and Canada to issue an order to stop all acts of torture and arbitrary detention in Syria in a case that accuses the Syrian government of violating UN’s Convention against Torture.
In the same context, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria published a report covering the period from Jan. 1, to June 2023, urging the release of all arbitrarily detained individuals in Syria. The Commission called for independent observers to have access to all detention centers.
Paulo Pinheiro, Head of the Commission, said “Before Syria plunges deeper into escalating violence and economic decline, we call on the key actors to cease attacks on civilians and respond to their dire needs, and urge the government in Damascus to take heed and to respond positively to Syrians’ legitimate aspirations and rights as key to ending the conflict.”
On Sep. 27, Geir Pedersen, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, told the UNSC, “An ever-deepening economic, humanitarian and security crisis in Syria is leading to widespread hopelessness and suffering, underscoring the urgent need for a political process to resume.”
He called “for concrete measures to address the concerns of Syrian civilians and for Syrian parties and international actors to entertain compromise to re-launch a Syrian-led and -owned political process in line with resolution 2254.”
Regarding foreign interventions in Syria, on Sep. 28, Turkey reiterated its rejection of the Syrian government’s demands for the withdrawal of Turkish forces from northern Syria as a condition for continuing normalization talks between the two countries.
In relation to sanctions imposed on the Syrian government, on Sep. 28, two US Senators presented the Assad Regime Anti-Normalization Act bill to counter normalization with the Syrian government and extend the sanctions imposed by the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act until 2032 and prohibits any US ministry or agency from recognizing or normalizing relations with Syria.