DHAKA: More than 76,000 people were killed in Syria’s brutal conflict in 2014, making it the bloodiest year yet in the country’s nearly four-year war.
A monitor said on Thursday, reports The Straits Times.
The conflict that began in March 2011 shows no sign of abating, with president Bashar al-Assad making a rare public appearance on a front line overnight to bolster soldiers and pro-government fighters.
The war has become a multi-front conflict and contributed to the rise of Islamic extremist groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
It controls a swathe of territory in both Syria and neighboring Iraq, where government figures showed at least 15,000 people were killed in 2014.
In Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, recorded 76,021 deaths last year.
The Britain-based group documented the deaths of nearly 18,000 civilians throughout 2014, among them 3,501 children.
The majority of the deaths were combatants, including nearly 17,000 militants, 15,747 rebel forces and 22,627 regime troops and militiamen.
BDST: 2145 HRS, JAN 01, 2015
