78 Civilians, Including 14 Children, 11 Women, and Eight Victims Who Died Due to Torture, Were Documented Killed in Syria in May 2022

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) announced in its monthly report released today that 78 civilians were killed in Syria in May 2022, including 14 children, 11 women, and eight individuals who died as a result of torture.

The report notes that May saw a decrease in the death toll compared to the previous month. The report documents the deaths of 78 civilians, including 14 children and 11 women, eight of whom were killed at the hands of Syrian regime forces. Meanwhile, the report documents the deaths of 60 civilians, including 13 children and 10 women, at the hands of other parties in May, which also saw the continuation of civilian casualties as a result of landmine explosions in different governorates and regions of Syria; the report documents the deaths of nine civilians, including six children and one woman, as a result of landmine explosions, bringing the death toll resulting from the explosion of landmines since the beginning of 2022, to 60 civilians, including 30 children and five women.

The report also documents the deaths of 35 civilians, including three children and two women, due to gunfire by parties that SNHR has not yet been able to identify; more than half of the victims were killed in the Daraa governorate.
The report documents the deaths of 78 civilians, including 14 children and 11 women (adult female), killed at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria in May 2022. This figure is broken down according to the perpetrators in each case, with eight of the civilian victims, including one woman, killed at the hands of Syrian regime forces, one child killed at the hands of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, and two civilians killed at the hands of all Armed Opposition factions/Syrian National Army. In addition, SNHR also documented the deaths of seven civilians at the hands of gunmen believed to be affiliated with ISIS, while 60 civilians, including 13 children and 10 women, were killed at the hands of other parties.

The report further reveals that the SNHR team documented the deaths of eight individuals, including one woman, due to torture in May 2022, all of whom died at the hands of Syrian regime forces.

The report also documents one massacre perpetrated by ISIS, with the term ‘massacre’ used to refer to any attack that caused the death of at least five peaceful individuals in the same incident.

As the report notes, the evidence collected by SNHR indicates that some of the attacks documented in the report were deliberately directed against civilians and civilian objects. These attacks along with indiscriminate bombardment have resulted in the destruction of facilities and buildings. The report notes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the war crime of attacking civilians has been committed in many cases.

The report calls on the UN Security Council to take additional steps following its adoption of Resolution 2254, and stresses the importance of referring the Syrian case to the International Criminal Court, adding that all those involved in perpetrating crimes against humanity and war crimes should be held accountable.

The report also stresses that the Syrian regime must stop the indiscriminate shelling and targeting of residential areas, hospitals, schools, and markets, as well as end its acts of torture that have caused the deaths of thousands of Syrian citizens in detention centers, and comply with UN Security Council resolutions and customary humanitarian law.

Lastly, the report calls on all the parties to the conflict to provide detailed maps of the locations where they have planted landmines, especially civilian sites or areas near residential communities, as well as make several additional recommendations.

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