The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Thursday that Syria’s civil war has killed 507,000 people as the 13th anniversary of the conflict approaches.
The war monitor said more than 343,000 combatants and more than 164,000 civilians, including 15,000 women and 25,000 children, have been killed since the uprising on March 15, 2011, sparked a full-scale civil war.
The overall figure has increased from about 503,000 last March as frontlines have largely quieted over the past few years.
Combatants include military soldiers, members of pro-Iran militias, the Kurdish-led forces, and jihadists.
The United Nations says Syria is home to about 7.2 million internally displaced people, and 16.7 million are in need of humanitarian assistance or protection, considered the greatest number since the crisis began in 2011.
Suhair Zakkout, the Damascus-based spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said humanitarian organizations were striving to maintain a “minimum level of the basic services,” including water and health.
Ninety percent of Syria’s population remains in poverty, with the country’s infrastructure, economy, and industry severely damaged, compounded by Western sanctions.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has slowly taken back territory lost early in the fighting with assistance from Iran and Russia. Large areas of the north remain outside the control of the government.
