Meanwhile, armed groups, like the Syrian National Army (SNA) and other Turkish-backed groups, have perpetrated torture, sexual violence, systematic looting and arbitrary detention. Government forces have also reportedly subjected civilians returning to Syria to arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture. In areas previously held by the opposition, the government is imposing arbitrary restrictions on freedom of movement and depriving individuals of their property, which the UN Human Rights Council-mandated Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Syria alleges may amount to the war crime of collective punishment. Government forces have committed murder, torture and sexual violence as a matter of state policy. Various parties to the conflict continue to perpetrate serious violations and abuses of international law. Over the last two years the conflict has shifted away from large-scale military hostilities along major frontlines to regional clashes between armed groups and Syrian government forces. Since the start of the conflict at least 580,000 people have been killed, including an estimated 306,887 civilians who died from 1 March 2011 to 31 March 2021, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. During the conflict, Syrian government forces have been bolstered by Russian airstrikes, which commenced in September 2015. The protracted crisis has its roots in President Bashar al-Assad government’s brutal suppression of protests in 2011, which quickly devolved into an internationalized country-wide conflict characterized by rampant atrocity crimes, including the illegal use of chemical weapons. Since March 2011 the government and opposition groups in Syria have engaged in an armed conflict. Populations in Syria continue to face war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by various state forces and non-state armed groups.
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