Fighting and violence at worst levels since 2020

Syria faces a humanitarian crisis and fighting and violence in the country is at its worst level since 2020, a UN-backed commission has said.

The UN Human Rights Council set up the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria in 2011 after civil war began.

In its latest report, released on Monday, the commission said that since October, fighting made its biggest increase in four years.

“With the region in turmoil, a determined international effort to contain the fighting on Syrian soil is imperative,” said Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the UN Commission of Inquiry.

“Syria, too, desperately needs a ceasefire.”

Mr Pinheiro said that more than 90 per cent of Syrians now live in poverty.

“The economy is in free-fall amid tightening sanctions and increased lawlessness is fuelling predatory practices and extortion by armed forces and militia,” he said.

Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, regional tension has soared, raising concerns of a wider conflict.

Israel has attacked Iran-affiliated targets in Syria, including at airports, disrupting the UN’s humanitarian efforts.

In response to more than 100 attacks on their bases by pro-Iran militias, US forces have launched air strikes in the east of Syria.

Syria and Russia have attacked more than 2,300 sites in opposition-held areas, resulting in significant civilian casualties.

These widespread assaults, said the commission, could constitute war crimes.

In Idlib, Hayat Tahrir Al Sham continued to commit acts of torture, ill-treatment and unlawful deprivation of liberty, with reports of executions based on summary trials, the report said.

It underscored a growing humanitarian crisis that is pushing Syrians into an increasingly dire situation.

The surge in asylum requests from Syrians in Europe in October, at a seven-year peak, was no shock, commissioner Hanny Megally said.