Ten years of the Syrian war have resulted in more than 388,000 deaths, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in a new toll announced Sunday, the eve of the conflict entering its eleventh year.

The observatory counted 388,652 people killed "since the start of the Syrian revolution on March 15, 2011 until dawn today." 

It stated that among them were 117,388 civilians, including more than 22,000 children. The majority of civilians have been killed as a result of the attacks of the Syrian regime and the militias loyal to it.

In its latest toll published at the end of December, the observatory had counted more than 387,000 people dead.

The director of the observatory, Rami Abdel-Rahman, confirmed to AFP that the tenth year of the war recorded the lowest death toll since the outbreak of the conflict.

The intensity of the fighting decreased during the past year, specifically in the Idlib region and its environs in northwestern Syria, with the entry into force of a ceasefire under a Russian-Turkish agreement, and then in light of the repercussions of the outbreak of the Coronavirus.

Among the civilian deaths, more than 16,000 died in the regime’s detention centers and prisons.

The total death toll does not include about 88,000 people who died under torture in the regime's prisons, but the observatory was not able to document each case separately.

The fate of tens of thousands of missing and kidnapped persons is still unknown to all parties to the conflict, according to the Observatory.

Thanks to decisive military support from its allies Iran and then Russia, government forces now control about two-thirds of the country, while the Syrians are suffering from the repercussions of a stifling economic crisis with the depletion of state resources and the collapse of the value of the local currency, in light of Western economic sanctions.

Areas in Idlib and its environs in the northwest of the country under the control of the Headquarters for the Liberation of Al-Sham (formerly Al-Nusra), and other areas in the northeast under the control of Kurdish forces, are among the most prominent areas outside the control of Damascus.

Ten years of war led to the destruction of infrastructure, the depletion of the economy, and the displacement and displacement of more than half of Syria's population inside and outside the country.