Syrian monitor: Russian airstrikes killed 9,364 in past year

Dead included civilians and fighters, among them rebel groups as well as militants from the Islamic State group and an al-Qaeda-linked faction.

In this photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defence group known as the White Helmets, Syrians inspect damaged buildings after airstrikes by government helicopters on the rebel-held Aleppo neighborhood of Mashhad, Syria, on Tuesday. A Syrian opposition monitoring group that tracks Syria’s civil war says a year of Russian airstrikes have killed more than 9,300 people in the war-torn country.

A Syrian opposition monitoring group that tracks Syria’s civil war says a year of Russian airstrikes have killed more than 9,300 people in the war-torn country.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday that the dead included civilians and fighters, among them rebel groups as well as militants from the Islamic State group and an al-Qaeda-linked faction.

Air campaign

On September 30 last year, Russia began an air campaign backing forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad and turning the balance of power in his favor.

Opposition activists have blamed Russia for the recent air campaign against rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo city that has killed more than 200 civilians in the past two weeks and demolished buildings.

The Observatory says that the airstrikes have killed 9,364 people over the past year.