Syrian Opposition Caused More Deaths

In May 2013, SOHR stated that at least 41,000 of those killed during the conflict were Alawites [most of whom support the government].

(PORTLAND, OR) - We are accustomed to the US media’s false claim that 100,000 or more people have been killed by the Syrian government forces in the almost 3 years of the civil war there.

In fact, even the most widely quoted pro-opposition source in the western media, the “Syrian Observatory on Human Rights” in London http://syriahr.com/en/, admits the largest group of the 130,433 deaths it claimed to have counted through Dec. 30 are those of pro-government combatants. Other opposition sources such as “The Center for Documentation of Violations in Syria” https://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/home count  far fewer (95,152) total deaths for the same period.

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Syrian_civil_war says “Al Jazeera journalist Nir Rosen reported that many of the deaths reported daily by activists are in fact armed insurgents falsely presented as civilian deaths, but confirmed that real civilian deaths do occur on a regular basis. A number of Middle East political analysts, including those from the Lebanese Al Akhbar newspaper, have also urged caution.

This was later confirmed when in late May 2012, Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is one of the opposition-affiliated groups counting the number of those killed in the uprising, stated that civilians who had taken up arms during the conflict were being counted under the category of "civilians". In May 2013, SOHR stated that at least 41,000 of those killed during the conflict were Alawites [most of whom support the government].”

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Portland Tribune photo by L.E. Baskow

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