As the world focused on Ukraine and Gaza over the weekend, the bloodiest
48-hour period in Syria's civil war went largely unnoticed. More than 700
Syrians were killed on Thursday and Friday, according to an NGO
tracking the conflict, providing a stark reminder that a war that has
raged for years shows no signs of winding down.
The Shaar gas field in central Syria saw some of the heaviest fighting.
It is a crucial gas supply facility for the country's central region and
among the largest in Syria. Islamic State fighters attacked the field
Wednesday night -- just hours after Bashar al-Assad was sworn in for a
third, seven-year term as president -- and seized it Thursday, killing
270 government soldiers, guards, and staff. According to the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based NGO, at least 40 militants
from the group formerly known as ISIS were killed. Over the weekend the body count grew by 100.
More than 170,000 people have died since began in March 2011. And the
war created an unprecedented refugee crisis displacing 2.8 million
people, including many women and children.
On Monday, Islamic State fighters clashed in Damascus with other
anti-Assad rebels who initially embraced the group but now are trying to
expel it from the city. They've successfully
ousted the organization from sections of the capital and its outskirts
but the Islamic State's influence has recently expanded, encompassing an oil-rich area in the eastern Deir Az Zor province. The organization controls much of Syria's east.
The Islamic State violently rekindled the Iraqi conflict in June,
conquering the central part of the country and coming close to Baghdad.
At the end of June, the group declared the formation of an Islamic State
-- a new caliphate -- across the territories it controls in both
countries.
The Sunni-dominated Islamic State is fighting Iraqi government forces as well as pro-government Shiite militias. In a report
released Friday, the United Nations condemned all sides in the current
upheaval, accusing them of violating human rights and committing war
crimes. At least 1,531 civilians were killed in Iraq in June.
"ISIL and associated armed groups have carried out many of these attacks
in a systematic manner heedless of the impact on civilians, or have
systematically targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure with the
intention of killing and wounding as many civilians as possible," the
report states.
The UN accuses the Iraqi government forces of violations -- including
extrajudicial killings and executions -- that "may amount to war crimes."
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