Monitoring Group Says Death Toll Climbs Past 170,000
AFP reports that the death toll in Syria’s conflict has passed 170,000 people, one-third of them civilians. More than 9,000 are children.
“Ever since the first casualty of the Syrian revolution was registered on March 18, 2011, in Daraa province, the deaths of 171,509 people have been documented,” says the opposition-backed Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
All sides took a heavy toll, with 65,803 regime troops and pro-regime militiamen and another 46,301 rebels and members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. On the rebel side, 15,422 were non-Syrians. Among the Assad ranks, 39,036 were regular troops, 24,655 were members of pro-regime militias and 509 fought for Hezbollah.
U.N. Boosts Aid Access to Syria
Al-Arabiya reports that a new U.N. Security Council draft resolution will authorize aid agencies and their “implementing partners” to use main border crossings, including those near front lines, to distribute aid in Syria with only minimal prior notification to the government in Damascus.
The draft resolution “calls for forming a ‘monitoring mechanism’ under U.N. authority to oversee ‘the loading of all humanitarian relief consignments,’” it says. The monitoring should be conducted ‘with the consent of the relevant neighboring countries of Syria.’ The monitors would be ‘deployed expeditiously, for an initial period of 120 days from the adoption of this resolution.’ It also calls on the warring Syrian parties to cooperate in the delivery of aid to ensure the humanitarian assistance goes directly to the people throughout Syria without hindrance.”
The document also calls on “all Syrian parties” to ensure the safety and security of the U.N. monitors, but it places the main responsibility on the Syrian government.
ISIS Intensifies Offensive Against Syrian Kurds
The AP reports that ISIS, using weapons recently seized in Iraq, has intensified an offensive against Kurdish areas in northern Syria as they fight to expand their territory in Syria.
“ISIS and Kurdish fighters have been fighting each other for a year, but the Kurds were usually the instigators until earlier this month when the balance of power appears to have tipped in favor of the Sunni extremists because of the large amounts of weapons they brought from Iraq into Syria,” the wire writes. “ISIS fighters captured several Kurdish villages and killed dozens of fighters in the area this week, according to activists. Kurdish official Nawaf Khalil said members of the ISIS group are trying to capture an area near the Turkish border that would link it with their positions in eastern Syria. He and other activists said the fighting is concentrated in the region of Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab.”
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