ISIS has reportedly killed over 4,000 people in Syria since losing its last stronghold in the country in 2019, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday.
After seizing vast areas in Iraq and Syria in 2014, the organization suffered successive defeats.
In March 2019, the Syrian Democratic Forces, led by Kurds and supported by the US, declared victory over ISIS in its last strongholds after months of battles.
However, ISIS remnants in Syrian desert areas continue to carry out attacks primarily targeting the Syrian army and the Syrian Democratic Forces.
The Observatory, based in Britain with sources inside Syria, indicated that ISIS “killed around 4,100 civilians and military personnel in more than 2,500 operations within government-controlled areas and Syrian Democratic Forces territories.”
Most victims were from government forces, affiliated militias, and Kurdish fighters, with the toll also including 627 civilians, according to the Observatory.
The total casualty toll reached 4,085, with more than half killed in the Syrian desert stretching from the outskirts of Damascus to the Iraqi border.
The Observatory reported documenting the killing of approximately 2,744 people by ISIS since its formal collapse in 2019, across various Syrian desert regions in over 914 operations.
Meanwhile, the organization killed “2,529 Syrian government forces and affiliated militias” in the desert since the collapse of its “caliphate.”
The Observatory highlighted that “hardly a day passes without an explosion, ambush, targeting, or surprise attack,” concentrated mainly in the Aleppo-Hama-Raqqa triangle, eastern Homs desert, Raqqa desert, and Deir ez-Zor desert. These operations are met with periodic security campaigns by government forces and their affiliated militias deep in the desert, supported by intense air cover from Russian warplanes targeting the desert almost daily.
In contrast, ISIS has suffered significant losses, with “more than 2,063 of its members and leaders killed since its formal collapse in 2019 until today, across various Syrian regions,” according to the Observatory.
In a report published in January, the United Nations estimated that the armed group still has “between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters” in Iraq and Syria.
The devastating conflict in Syria, which began in 2011, has resulted in the deaths of over half a million people, massive infrastructure destruction, and the displacement of more than half of the population within and outside the country.
