BEIRUT: Syria's
nearly eight-year-old conflict saw its lowest annual death toll in 2018 as the
regime reasserted its authority over swathes of territory, a war monitor said
yesterday. A total of 19,666 people were killed this year as a result of the
conflict, which erupted in 2011, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
monitoring group reported. "2018 was the lowest annual toll since the
start of the conflict," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The Britain-based
monitor relies on a vast network of sources across Syria to document the war
that broke out after the brutal repression of nationwide anti-regime protests
in 2011. The death toll for 2017 stood at more than 33,000 and the highest
annual figure was reached in 2014 -- the year the Islamic State jihadist group
proclaimed a "caliphate" over large parts of Syria and neighboring
Iraq -- when 76,000 people were killed. Among those killed in 2018 were 6,349
civilians, 1,437 of them children, Abdel Rahman said.

Eastern Ghouta

"Most of
those killed during the first part of the year were killed in regime and
Russian bombardment of opposition areas, including Eastern Ghouta," Abdel
Rahman said. "The majority of those killed in the second half of the year
were killed in coalition air strikes," he added. The first months of 2018
were marked by major Russian-backed government operations to retake rebel and
jihadist bastions in and around the capital Damascus.

The bloodiest of
them was an assault on Eastern Ghouta, a densely-populated area east of
Damascus that remained besieged for years. The most active front of the past
few months has been the battle against the remnants of the Islamic State group
in eastern Syria. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by a
US-led coalition carrying out air strikes, launched an offensive on September
10. Jihadist fighters defending the last rump of their once sprawling
proto-state, near the Iraqi border along the Euphrates River, have put up
fierce resistance but seem close to collapsing. While fighting has ended or is
winding down in several parts of the country, 2019 could see its share of
military flare-ups.

Threatened
Turkish offensive

Besides the
continued threat posed by IS sleeper cells even after it loses its last pocket
in eastern Syria, two other areas remain of concern. Turkey has threatened a
major offensive against the Kurdish militia that controls regions along its
border in northeastern Syria. The announcement made by Donald Trump two weeks
ago that he had ordered a full troop pullout from Syria left the US-led
coalition's Kurdish allies more exposed.

Thousands of
rebel fighters and jihadists also remain in Idlib, a northern province where
many of them were transferred as a result of deals to end government assaults
on other areas across the country. Under an agreement reached in Russia, Turkey
was tasked with disarming some of the groups active in Idlib but little
progress has been achieved. President Bashar Al-Assad has consistently said
that his forces would seek to re-conquer the entire Syrian territory. According
to the Observatory, the government and its allies now controls 60.2 percent of
Syrian territory, while the SDF hold 28.8 percent.

The Kurds last
week asked for the regime's help against the threat of a Turkish offensive, a
move that will put pay to their ambitions of increased autonomy. By comparison,
the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project puts the number of
conflict-related deaths in Afghanistan at more than 40,000 this year.

IS arrests

In related news,
Iraq sentenced more than 600 foreigners including many women and dozens of
minors in 2018 for belonging to the Islamic State group, the judiciary said
yesterday. Iraq declared "victory" over IS at the end of 2017 after a
three-year war against the jihadists, who once controlled nearly a third of the
country as well as swathes of neighboring Syria.

Around 20,000
people suspected of links to IS have been arrested since 2014. Judicial spokesman
Abdel Sattar Bayraqdar said yesterday that "616 men and women accused of
belonging to IS have been put on trial" in 2018 and sentenced under Iraq's
anti-terrorism law. They comprised 466 women, 42 men and 108 minors, he said.
Bayraqdar did not, however specify the punishments. Under Iraq's anti-terrorism
law courts can issue verdicts, including death sentences, against anyone found
guilty of belonging to the jihadist group, including non-combatants.

In April,
judicial sources said that more than 300 suspects linked to IS had received
death sentences and more than 300 others were sentenced to life, which in Iraq
is equivalent to 20 years. Most of the women sentenced for IS links were from
Turkey and republics of the former Soviet Union. Three French citizens -- two
women and a man -- have been sentenced to life imprisonment while a German
woman, a Belgian man and a Russian man have been sentenced to death. Many women
had travelled to Iraq with their children to join their husbands who fought in
the ranks of IS. Some are still waiting to be repatriated to their home
countries. - AFP