By Fatih Hafiz Mehmet
(AA): A total of 772 civilians were killed in Syria last month, according to a new report by a London-based NGO devoted to tracking rights violations in war-torn Syria.
In a monthly report issued Sunday, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) documents civilian deaths throughout Syria during the month of August.
According to the SNHR, international coalition forces — led by the U.S. — were responsible for most of last month’s civilian deaths.
The report found that at least 285 civilians, including 58 women and 97 children, were killed by coalition forces during the period in question.
Assad regime forces, meanwhile, were responsible for 229 civilian deaths, including 17 women and 24 children. Of these, 27 died as a result of torture, according to the report.
The SNHR said the PKK/PYD terrorist group was responsible for 54 civilian deaths, including seven women and 10 children.
Another 102 civilians were killed by the Daesh terrorist group, while five more were killed by the Fateh al-Sham Front (formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front).
The report also states that Russian forces were responsible for 11 civilian casualties.
The NGO was unable to identify the perpetrators of the remaining civilian deaths.
According to Sunday’s report, last month’s deaths bring the total number of civilian casualties in Syria since Jan. 1 to more than 7,200.
Now in its seventh year, the conflict in Syria has claimed more than 500,000 lives and displaced millions of people, according to UN data.
Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
The conflict escalated in 2014 after Daesh overran vast swathes of territory in both Syria and Iraq, where — despite a string of recent losses — it still maintains a significant presence.
[Photo: A wounded Syrian kid receives medical treatment at Sahra hospital after PKK/PYD attacks with rocket launchers over civilians at residential areas in Marea town of Aleppo, Syria on August 29. Photographer: Hüseyin Nasır/AA]
