128,000 still held in Syrian prisons: UK-based watchdog

By Mohamed Sheikh Yusuf</p> <p>ISTANBUL (AA) – Almost 14,000 people have died in the prisons of the Syrian regime since March of 2011, while about 128,000 others still remain in detention, the U.K.-based Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said in a report released Monday.</p> <p>According to the report, a total of 127,916 people are currently in detention — or have been forcibly disappeared — over the same period.</p> <p>The report also asserts that the PYD/PKK terrorist group has carried out “arbitrary arrests and forced disappearances in areas of Syria under its control”.</p> <p>It also notes that at least 2,705 people have been arbitrarily arrested or forcibly disappeared by the so-called “Syrian Democratic Forces”, which is led by the Syrian branch of PKK terrorist organization. </p> <p>The SNHR further states that militant organizations, including the Daesh terrorist group, have detained at least 9,867 people over the same period.</p> <p>According to the report, regime forces have followed a policy of besieging opposition-held areas, preventing access to food and medicine, resulting in the death of 921 civilians — including 187 women and 398 children — since March of 2011.</p> <p>The Daesh terrorist group, the report points out, have adopted similar policies in the city of Deir ez-Zour and at the Yarmouk refugee camp south of Damascus.</p> <p>The report goes on to claim that 216 chemical-weapon attacks have been carried out by the regime since December of 2012, causing the death of at least 1,461 people.</p> <p>According to the SNHR, Syria suffered massive waves of displacement, especially in 2017 and 2018, as a result of military operations carried out by the warring camps or as a result of deals and truces imposed on besieged areas — arrangements, the NGO says, which violate international humanitarian law.</p> <p>An estimated 14.2 million people have been forcibly displaced since March of 2011, including eight million displaced inside Syria and another 6.2 million forced to flee the country entirely.