Over 24,700 women killed in Syria since 2011: NGO

By Adham Kako

ANKARA

More than 24,700 women have been killed in Syria since the outbreak of the country’s civil war in 2011, according to a London-based NGO.

In a new report, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said a total of 24,746 women have lost their lives in Syria since March 2011.

The Syrian regime was responsible for the death of 20,919 women, making up around 84.5 percent of the overall death toll, the NGO said.

The report said Russian forces – which back the Syrian regime -- PKK/PYD terrorist group and Daesh terrorist group were responsible for the death of 988, 573 and 136 women respectively.

At least 611 women were killed by the U.S.-led anti-Daesh coalition and 889 women by the Syrian opposition since 2011, the NGO said.

According to the report, some 8,289 women remain under “arbitrary arrest or forcibly-disappeared” by warring parties in Syria.

The rights group called on the UN to intervene to protect Syrian women in the country’s devastating civil war, which broke out when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the fighting and more than 10 million displaced, according to the UN.