The U.N. human rights chief says her office has tallied more than 1,000 civilian deaths in Syria over the last four months, the majority of them due to airstrikes and ground attacks by Bashar Assad's forces and their allies.
Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, says 1,089 civilians were killed in the war-battered country between April 29 and August 29, including 304 children.
She said nearly all — 1,031 — were reportedly attributable to government forces and their allies in Idlib and Hama provinces. Another 58 were caused by "non-state actors."
Bachelet was speaking to reporters in Geneva on Wednesday to go over her first year in office.
Idlib province, near Syria's border with Turkey, is the final stronghold of the rebels in Syria.
Turkey and Russia agreed last September to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone where acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.
Under the deal, opposition groups in Idlib would remain in areas where they were already present, while Russia and Turkey would carry out joint patrols in the area to prevent a resumption of fighting.
The Syrian regime and its allies, however, have consistently broken the terms of the cease-fire, launching frequent attacks inside the de-escalation zone.
