SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
A young Syrian refugee in Harmanli. (Photo: UNHCR / D. Kashavelov / November 2013)
'Catastrophic': War in Syria Has Killed Over 11,000 Children
'This grim and terrible record also shows why a sustainable peace, not more bombs and bullets, is the only way to guarantee the safety of children.'
Nov 25, 2013
A new report reveals one of the staggering costs of 30 months of war in Syria: over 11,000 children have died.
The report from the London-based think tank Oxford Research Group (ORG), Stolen Futures: The Hidden Toll of Child Casualties in Syria, finds that the biggest killer was explosives, being responsible for 71% of deaths.
Small arms fire were responsible for one in four child deaths, and 13- to 17-year-old boys were the most frequent victims of targeting killings such as sniper fire, execution or torture, the report finds.
"The data we analyzed indicates that bombs and bullets alone ended the lives of ten thousand Syrian children," report co-author Hamit Dardagan said in statement.
The conflict "has had a catastrophic effect on the country's children. Besides the many whose lives and futures have been stolen from them, many more will have been injured, maimed, psychologically impacted, uprooted from their homes and orphaned," the report states.
Dardagan stressed that an end to the ongoing conflict in the country will not come via military force.
"This study shows why explosive weapons should never be used where children live and play, how older children quickly become targets in a war and even the youngest suffer its worst abuses. This grim and terrible record also shows why a sustainable peace, not more bombs and bullets, is the only way to guarantee the safety of children," Dardagan stated.
Richard Reeve, Director of ORG's Sustainable Security program, adds in the report that "Acting in the name of civilian protection is not necessarily the same as protecting civilians."
"To think that military planners can exclude civilians from targets is a fallacy," Reeve wrote.
__________________
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
A new report reveals one of the staggering costs of 30 months of war in Syria: over 11,000 children have died.
The report from the London-based think tank Oxford Research Group (ORG), Stolen Futures: The Hidden Toll of Child Casualties in Syria, finds that the biggest killer was explosives, being responsible for 71% of deaths.
Small arms fire were responsible for one in four child deaths, and 13- to 17-year-old boys were the most frequent victims of targeting killings such as sniper fire, execution or torture, the report finds.
"The data we analyzed indicates that bombs and bullets alone ended the lives of ten thousand Syrian children," report co-author Hamit Dardagan said in statement.
The conflict "has had a catastrophic effect on the country's children. Besides the many whose lives and futures have been stolen from them, many more will have been injured, maimed, psychologically impacted, uprooted from their homes and orphaned," the report states.
Dardagan stressed that an end to the ongoing conflict in the country will not come via military force.
"This study shows why explosive weapons should never be used where children live and play, how older children quickly become targets in a war and even the youngest suffer its worst abuses. This grim and terrible record also shows why a sustainable peace, not more bombs and bullets, is the only way to guarantee the safety of children," Dardagan stated.
Richard Reeve, Director of ORG's Sustainable Security program, adds in the report that "Acting in the name of civilian protection is not necessarily the same as protecting civilians."
"To think that military planners can exclude civilians from targets is a fallacy," Reeve wrote.
__________________
A new report reveals one of the staggering costs of 30 months of war in Syria: over 11,000 children have died.
The report from the London-based think tank Oxford Research Group (ORG), Stolen Futures: The Hidden Toll of Child Casualties in Syria, finds that the biggest killer was explosives, being responsible for 71% of deaths.
Small arms fire were responsible for one in four child deaths, and 13- to 17-year-old boys were the most frequent victims of targeting killings such as sniper fire, execution or torture, the report finds.
"The data we analyzed indicates that bombs and bullets alone ended the lives of ten thousand Syrian children," report co-author Hamit Dardagan said in statement.
The conflict "has had a catastrophic effect on the country's children. Besides the many whose lives and futures have been stolen from them, many more will have been injured, maimed, psychologically impacted, uprooted from their homes and orphaned," the report states.
Dardagan stressed that an end to the ongoing conflict in the country will not come via military force.
"This study shows why explosive weapons should never be used where children live and play, how older children quickly become targets in a war and even the youngest suffer its worst abuses. This grim and terrible record also shows why a sustainable peace, not more bombs and bullets, is the only way to guarantee the safety of children," Dardagan stated.
Richard Reeve, Director of ORG's Sustainable Security program, adds in the report that "Acting in the name of civilian protection is not necessarily the same as protecting civilians."
"To think that military planners can exclude civilians from targets is a fallacy," Reeve wrote.
__________________
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.