Over 2.8 Lakh Dead in Syria War, Healthcare Workers Most Unsafe

Over 81,000 of those dead were civilians and more than 1,00,000 pro-regime fighters.

Healthcare workers in a hospital in Syria. (Photo: Reuters)

• Syria has lost more than 2,80,000 lives since the civil war began, as noted by
  the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Observatory is based in Britain and depends on a network of sources inside Syria to gather its information.
  
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• Syria was also the most dangerous place for health care workers to operate in 2015, ahead of other conflict zones like Yemen, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.
  
  
• The UN health agency provided comprehensive statistics on attacks on health care facilities and other violence directed at health workers in conflict areas, covering 19 countries over the past two years.
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  Two-thirds of the attacks have been deliberate, which represents a gross violation of international humanitarian law. If proved, these can be considered war crimes, the WHO Chief of Emergency Risk Management said.
  
  

• According to the WHO report, 256 attacks directed at medical structures, personnel and ambulances took place in total across 19 countries in 2015, killing 434 people. These included health workers, patients and bystanders. 135 of those attacks took place in war-ravaged Syria, resulting in 173 deaths.
  

(With inputs from PTI.)