Syria’s Death Toll Exceeds 200,000
Syria’s death toll has exceeded 200,000 in less than four years, the AFP reports.
“We have documented the killing of 202,354 people since March 2011, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP, adding that more than 130,000 of them were combatants.
“Of the total, 63,074 of the killed were civilians, including 10,377 children,” he added.
According to the Observatory, the death toll is most likely higher than 200,000, “but certain areas under regime and [jihadist] Islamic State group control are impossible to work in freely.” Abdel went on to say that 22,624 of those killed were non-Syrian jihadists.
There are 300,000 people being held in Syria’s jails, in addition to 20,000 people who have gone missing, and thousands of other people who have been taken hostage by ISIS and other factions inside Syria, the Observatory reported.
Gunmen Kill at Least Six Lebanese Soldiers in Latest Violence Spillover from Syrian Conflict
“Gunmen killed at least six Lebanese soldiers when they attacked an army patrol near the border with Syria on Tuesday,” Reuters reports.
According to a Lebanese army statement, the soldiers were ambushed by a “terrorist group” that crossed from Syria to the Lebanese border town of Ras Baalbek.
In response to the ambush, the Lebanese army fired artillery shells at militants’ hideouts along the Syrian border, the Daily Star wrote.
The affiliations of the militants were not immediately known. But spillovers from the Syrian conflict have put neighboring Lebanon on high alert after militants from the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State attacked the Lebanese border town of Arsal and took a group of Lebanese soldiers hostage.
The attack took place on the same day that Lebanese security forces claim they apprehended a wife and one of the sons of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, as they crossed into Lebanon from Syria.
New Syrian Opposition Group, Dominated by Islamic Factions, Fails to Attract Moderate Rebels
Over the past weekend, the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) was formed, an umbrella group whose goal is unite Syrian rebel groups in the north.
The group “was meant to include Islamist and more secular-minded groups while excluding hardliners Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State, targeted by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes since September,” Reuters reports.
Made up of 72 different groups, all of which share a common purpose of uniting to fight against the Syrian government, the group is a far cry from the “moderate faction” people were expecting.
According to a Mcclatchy report, “moderates hold only six or seven of the 17 executive positions.”
As a result, at least two major rebel groups, the Western-backed and vetted Harakat Hazem and the Syrian Revolutionaries Front, have left the initiative, claiming it was too heavily dominated by Islamists. The southern branch of the Syrian Revolutionaries Front has also denied any link to the group.
“When we felt it was diverting from the principles of the revolution we dropped out,” a senior member of Harakat Hazm told Reuters.
The move is the latest effort to unify the fragmented Syrian military opposition that has thus far failed to provide a cohesive vehicle for foreign military aid. The announcement of the new umbrella group comes at a time when moderate rebels have lost territory in the Idlib province to Jabhat-al Nusra.
According to mainstream rebels, the failure of the U.S. and its allies to provide adequate support to opposition groups paved the way for extremist groups like the Islamic State to dominate and gain territory inside Syria.
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