Civilian deaths in Syria - Russian Institute Report

[Approaching Infinity]

SOTT just carried this piece, excerpt:

https://www.sott.net/article/332484-How-many-civilians-have-actually-been-killed-in-Syria-36000-according-to-new-study-majority-by-militants

In 2011, the Syrian population was 22.5 million people. According to Syrian statistics, since that time the population has decreased to 17.87 million. The research revealed that a total of 105,000 Syrians have been killed in the war, including 45,000 soldiers and militia fighters, 24,000 militants and 36,000 civilians.

The majority of civilians were killed by jihadists and the so-called moderate opposition forces, according to the report. In addition, nearly 18,000 foreign terrorists recruited from over 80 countries have been killed in the war.

Earlier, Yaakov Kedmi, head of the Israeli intelligence agency Nativ, unveiled nearly the same data, including about 40,000 civilians killed.

I haven't been able to find any other coverage of the report, but Sputnik links to this press conference.

http://pressmia.ru/pressclub/20161026/951279436.html

Any chance one of our Russian members can check it out to see if they have anything else interesting to say? I'm curious to know if they break down the civilian death number. It's understandable that Sputnik would just say the "majority" were from the militants, not wanting to pin an exact number of civilian deaths on the Syrians and Russians, but it would be good to know the actual number, if they provide it.

From the comment on SOTT:

Putting the stats together, that is 45,000 soldiers (army and militia, not counting Iranian or Lebanese fighters), 42,000 militants (jihadists and "rebels"), and 36,000 civilians. Even if we split the civilian casualties 50/50, that would mean the Syrian army has killed 42,000 militants and 18,000 civilians, a civilian casualty ratio of around 1:2, or 30%. And given that the jihadists were responsible for the majority, the number is likely even less than that. The average in warfare is 50%.

To compare, when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, the figure was around 80%. B'Tselem estimates a ratio of 56-74% for the 2008-2009 Gaza War. For the Iraq War, Iraq Body Count estimated around 33% killed by American/Coalition forces were civilians. (The overall number for the war was 77%, however. The overall casualty ratio for the Syrian war comes to around 29%.) NATO's war on Yugoslavia is harder to determine, but former Israeli ambassador the the U.S. Michael Oren says it was 80%.

So ask yourself: Is Assad really "deliberately and indiscriminately" killing his own people? Hardly.

 

[angelburst29]

Don't know if this will be any help - for what you're looking for?

Over 16,000 Syrians Killed by US-backed ‘Moderates’ since February – Russian UN Mission
https://southfront.org/over-16000-syrians-killed-by-us-backed-moderates-since-february-russian-un-mission/

Originally appeared at RT - Oct. 29, 2016

Over 16,000 people have fallen victim to opposition groups meant to be under US control, Russia’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations said in a statement assessing how Russia-US agreements on Syria are being implemented.

“From February to September the opposition groups that are supposed to be under the US control committed 2,031 violations of the [cessation of hostilities], which claimed lives of 3,532 military personnel and 12,800 civilians,” the Mission’s statement, published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry, reads.

The mission states further that while Russia fulfilled its part of the bargain and negotiated with the Syrian authorities to make the cessation of hostilities possible, Washington failed to deliver on its promise to negotiate the same with the US-backed ‘moderate’ Syrian opposition.

“Russia guaranteed the implementation of the [cessation of hostilities] by the Syrian government. The US on the other hand was not capable to insure the implementation of the [cessation of hostilities] by the armed groups.”

“Furthermore, the US failed to fulfill their February promise to separate Al-Nusra Front from ‘moderate’ opposition,” the mission stressed, adding that there are a number of other matters it regards as US failures in the combined efforts of the two states to bring peace to the Middle Eastern country. These include the failure to establish a valuable exchange of information about ceasefire violations, and the failure to facilitate humanitarian access to East Aleppo.

The mission stressed that Russia, for its part, ensured the withdrawal of Syrian Army forces from Castello road to give way to a humanitarian convoy twice, as well as the establishment of a manned check point for truck inspection on the government-controlled side, while the US failed to do the same on the side controlled by militants.

The mission noted that its conclusions are based on a fact-based comparative analysis of the Russia-US agreements and their implementation within the past months. It has submitted this analysis to a number of high-ranking officials within the United Nations and to several human rights organizations in order to “shed some light on true reasons that hinder the Russia-US agreements implementation.”

“Russia is open for a continued cooperation in a wide range of areas of the settlement of the Syrian crisis with its partners, including the US. But this cooperation is only possible on the basis of equal rights and a principle of responsible discharge of the respective functions,” the mission stated.

The armed conflict has been raging in Syria since March 2011. Government troops confronted the militants of different armed groups. The figures on the number of victims of the conflict differ. According to the United Nations, around 300,000 Syrians have been killed during the war.

The Russian Institute of Oriental Studies, however, using data from the Syrian Central Bureau of Statistics, carried out its own investigation, and estimated the number of Syrians killed to be around 105,000, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

According to that study, 45,000 of those killed served in the Syrian Army and government-controlled militia, 24,000 were militants from local militant groups, and 36,000 were civilians. The study also found that about 18,000 of those killed in Syria were foreign mercenaries of terrorist groups operating in the country — citizens of over 80 different countries.

I wasn't able to get any English link to the Press Conference mentioned but I came across this site and Infographic?

The costs of conflict: Syria five years on (infographic)
http://www.concernusa.org/story/the-costs-of-conflict-syria-five-years-on-infographic/?gclid=CIrr-7mWgdACFYNbhgodcAcJww

March 11, 2016 - As the Syrian war enters its sixth year, we tally the cost so far.

In five years of war, a quarter of a million people have lost their lives. Over 13.5 million have had to leave their homes: 6.5 million people have been displaced within Syria; another 4.4 million have fled the country as refugees, prompting the worst refugee crisis the world has faced since World War II.

Meanwhile, life within Syria has become a living nightmare for those unable to flee. The infrastructure of civilized, functioning society has been completely destroyed.

It’s impossible to calculate the true impact of the war, but we try to count some of the cost.
(Infographic below.)

 

[Approaching Infinity]

Don't know if this will be any help - for what you're looking for?

Over 16,000 Syrians Killed by US-backed ‘Moderates’ since February – Russian UN Mission

Nope, that just says how many people were killed since February of this year. The report in my post covers the entire war, and seems to break down the total number of Syrian civilians killed, by both sides of the conflict.

 

[angelburst29]

The Fort Russ website just published this article. I was unable to locate a transcript of “Syria: The Thorny Path to Reconciliation” that the Russian Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences presented at the conference. Their website does not have the conference listed, nor a manuscript of the meeting.

Statistical Propaganda: How many Syrians has US regime-change killed?
http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/10/statistical-propaganda-how-many-syrians.html

Hardly a day goes by without foreign media circulating the false accusations that the leadership of the Syrian Arab Republic is guilty of the deaths of hundreds of thousands and even millions of Syrians. Even authoritative international organizations are cited as the sources of the dissemination of such information.

In July 2013, according to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, the death toll in Syria exceeded 100 thousand.

In October 2014, the Jordanian prince and UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, determined the number of people killed in Syria to be 200,000.

By October 2015, according to UN figures, the number of killed in Syria was more than 240,000.

In September 2016, the UN officially presented the figure of 300,000 Syrians killed and more than half of the Syrian population as refugees.

According to the Dubai news channel “Al-Arabiya,” in October 2015, the number of killed had already surpassed 250,000. The New York Times produced similar figures.

After the beginning of the Russian air force’s operation in Syria, the figures of casualties presented by Western sources did not change for the better. Of course, the countries participating in the conflict “correct” the data in favor of their interests and many media outlets operate with unverified information from the Supervisory Board on Human Rights of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights created by the opposition.

How objective are these disseminated figures?

The Russian Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences has conducted its own study using data from the Central Statistical Bureau of Syria. This was reported at a press conference entitled “Syria: The Thorny Path to Reconciliation” at the Russia Today media agency by the UN’s senior advisor and representative on Syria, Russian Academy of Science correspondent Vitaliy Naumkin.

In 2011, the population of Syria amounted to 22.51 million people. According to the figures of the Syrian Central Statistical Bureau, the Syrian Arab Republic’s population has declined to 17.87 million.

Given the average growth rate of the population excluding refugees, the total number for today was supposed to be 24.64 million people. As of October 20th, 2016, the number of Syrian citizens (including emigrants) is 24.54 million.

Given correct calculations, the number of Syrians killed over five years of war has been determined, taking into consideration that around 7 million people have left Syria as refugees.

According to the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the total number of Syrians killed is 105,000. The losses of the government army and militia amount to 45,000. 24,000 militants of terrorist organizations from among the local population have been killed, and 35,000 civilians have been killed. The largest number of civilians have been killed at the hands of jihadists and the so-called “moderate opposition.” Around 18,000 in Syria have been killed by foreign mercenaries of terrorist groups including citizens from 80 countries.

Earlier, the ex-head of the Israeli secret services Nativ, Yaakov Kedmi, presented almost identical figures of Syrian losses (around 40,000 civilians).

American assessments, as a rule, range from several hundred thousand to millions killed, which is beyond the boundaries of reality.

But the point is not even in the statistics. The death of people in principle should not become an object of political speculation or an instrument of information war. American lies on the number of people killed in Syria is doubly disgusting because it is the US that developed and attempted to realize regime-change projects against unfavorable leaders in a number of Middle Eastern and African “rouge states” by means of terrorists from “moderate oppositions” and fomenting civil wars...

The American coalition does not want to publicize the civilian losses resultant of their air strikes on ISIS in Iraq. And yet the coalition has repeatedly hurled accusations against others for losses among the civilian population. During the Iraq War (2003-2011), 460,000 Iraqis were killed. The assault on Mosul is also resulting in many victims among the civilian population.

Palestinian political analyst Azzam Abu Saud remarked in the Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen: “The US has made a mass of mistakes in Syria. The war in Syria never would have been so bloody if the US had not supplied weapons to rebels. The US, in addition, created the Islamic State, which has now spun out of their control.”

Another Norwegian publication, ABC Nyheter, adds: “The US claims that only 55 civilians and 45,000 militants from ISIS and other militant Islamists have been killed as a result of more than 11,000 coalition airstrikes on ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria since 2014…Even when the American leadership is presented with the lists of civilians killed in Syria and Iraq and their photographs, they refuse to acknowledge their deaths.”

The Russian approach to resolving the Syrian and other Middle Eastern conflicts remains the same: there is no military solution. Success is possible only through dialogue and national reconciliation.


[mod: edited extra space]