September deadliest month with 3,000 Syrians killed: war monitor
UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the toll includes 955 civilians; over 70 percent were killed in regime and Russian air strikes or in air raids by the international coalition fighting Daesh.
Countless Syrians from the eastern city of Deir Ezzor have been displaced and killed in the war against the Daesh and the regime. Displaced Syrians are pictured carrying water containers near Ain Issa camp. September 23, 2017 (AFP)
Syria's war killed at least 3,000 people – including 955 civilians – in September, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said Sunday, in the deadliest month of the conflict in 2017.
"More than 70 percent of the civilians were killed in regime and Russian air strikes, or in air raids of the international coalition" against Daesh, the Britain-based monitor's head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Backed by Russian air strikes, the forces of Syria's regime leader Bashar al Assad are pressing a battle to retake Daesh-controlled areas in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.
A US-led international coalition has been providing air support to a Kurdish-Arab alliance also fighting Daesh in its former northern bastion of Raqqa city and Deir Ezzor.
Intensification of air raids
The number of people killed in September was higher due to increased fighting and "intensified air raids of the international coalition and Russia against jihadist bastions in the north and east of Syria, but also due to increased Russian and regime strikes on rebel-held areas," Abdel Rahman said.
The 955 civilians killed in September included 207 children, said the Observatory, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria for its information.
It said 738 members – from Daesh and a group led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate – also died.
Daesh seized “symbol of coexistence”
On Sunday, Daesh seized a town in central Syria known as a symbol of religious coexistence in a surprise attack against regime forces, the Observatory said.
The terror group took control of Al Qaryatain in the central province of Homs early on Sunday, according to the monitor.
Regime troops had surrounded the town, where several Christian families are believed to be living, he said.
Al Qaryatain was home to some 30,000 people before Syria's war broke out in 2011, 900 of them Christians.
Regime forces recaptured Al Qaryatain in April 2016 after eight months of Daesh control.
Syria's conflict has killed more than 330,000 people and displaced millions since it broke out in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-regime protests before evolving into a complex war drawing in world powers.
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