シリア内戦勃発からもうすぐ９年、死者３８万人に　シリア人権監視団

【ベイルートＡＦＰ＝時事】在英のシリア人権監視団は4日、勃発から9年になろうとしているシリア内戦の死者が、38万人を超えたと発表した。同団体は昨年3月、内戦による死者が37万人を超えたと発表していた。（写真は資料写真）
　シリアに情報網を持つ同団体によると、死者のうち１１万５０００人以上が民間人で、子どもが約２万２０００人、女性が１万３０００人以上を占めていた。
　今回発表された死者数のうち、１２万８０００人以上がシリア人と外国人を合わせた同国政権側の戦闘員だった。うち半数以上がシリア出身の兵士で、レバノンのイスラム教シーア派政党・武装組織ヒズボラの戦闘員が１６８２人だった。ヒズボラの戦闘員らは２０１３年以降、シリア内戦で戦闘に参加している。
　一方、反体制派やクルド人勢力の戦闘員ら６万９０００人以上が死亡した。また国際テロ組織アルカイダの元傘下組織を前身とする反体制派連合「タハリール・アルシャーム機構」や、イスラム過激派組織「イスラム国（ＩＳ）」などイスラム過激派の６万７０００人以上も死亡した。
　発表された死者数には、政権側の刑務所で拷問により死亡した約８万８０００人や、内戦中に各勢力から拘束され行方が分からなくなっている数千人は含まれていない。
　シリア内戦は、２０１１年３月１５日に南部ダルアー市で起きた反政府抗議行動がきっかけとなって始まった。これまでに１３００万人近くの国民が避難や亡命を余儀なくされている。
　昨年１２月以降シリア北西部イドリブに対する爆撃が激化しており、国連によるとこれに伴い２８万４０００人が避難したという。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/01/06-08:48）

Almost nine years of civil war in Syria has left more than 380,000 people dead including over 115,000 civilians, a war monitor said in a new toll Saturday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of sources across the country, said they included around 22,000 children and more than 13,000 women.
The conflict flared after unprecedented anti-government protests in the southern city of Daraa on March 15, 2011.
Demonstrations spread across Syria and were brutally suppressed by the regime, triggering a multi-front armed conflict that has drawn in jihadists and foreign powers.
The conflict has displaced or sent into exile around 13 million Syrians, causing billions of dollars-worth of destruction.
The Britain-based Observatory's last casualty toll on the Syrian conflict, issued in March last year, stood at more than 370,000 dead.
The latest toll included more than 128,000 Syrian and non-Syrian pro-regime fighters.
More than half of those were Syrian soldiers, while 1,682 were from the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah whose members have been fighting in Syria since 2013.
The war has also taken the lives of more than 69,000 opposition, Islamist, and Kurdish-led fighters.
It has killed more than 67,000 jihadists, mainly from the Islamic State group and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group dominated by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate.
The total death toll does not include some 88,000 people who died of torture in regime jails, or thousands missing after being abducted by all sides in the conflict.
With the support of powerful allies Russia and Iran, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has inched his way back in recent years to controlling almost two-thirds of the country.
That comes after a string of victories against rebels and jihadists since 2015, but also his forces being deployed to parts of the northeast of the country under a deal to halt a Turkish cross-border operation last year.
Several parts of the country, however, remain beyond the reach of the Damascus government.
They include the last major opposition bastion of Idlib, a region of some three million people that is ruled by the jihadists of HTS.
An escalation in violence there in recent weeks has caused 284,000 people to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.
In the northeast, Turkish troops and their proxies control a strip of land along the border after seizing it from Kurdish fighters earlier this year.
Kurdish-led forces control the far east Syria, where US troops have been deployed near major oil fields.
Syria's conflict is estimated to have set its economy back three decades, destroying infrastructure and paralysing the production of electricity and oil.