Overview of attacks against civilian infrastructure during the Syrian civil war, 2012–2018

Abstract

BackgroundHundreds of thousands of people have been killed during the Syrian civil war and millions more displaced along with an unconscionable amount of destroyed civilian infrastructure.MethodsWe aggregate attack data from Airwars, Physicians for Human Rights and the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition/Insecurity Insight to provide a summary of attacks against civilian infrastructure during the years 2012–2018. Specifically, we explore relationships between date of attack, governorate, perpetrator and weapon for 2689 attacks against five civilian infrastructure classes: healthcare, private, public, school and unknown. Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) via squared cosine distance, k-means clustering of the MCA row coordinates, binomial lasso classification and Cramer’s V coefficients are used to produce and investigate these correlations.ResultsFrequencies and proportions of attacks against the civilian infrastructure classes by year, governorate, perpetrator and weapon are presented. MCA results identify variation along the first two dimensions for the variables year, governorate, perpetrator and healthcare infrastructure in four topics of interest: (1) Syrian government attacks against healthcare infrastructure, (2) US-led Coalition offensives in Raqqa in 2017, (3) Russian violence in Aleppo in 2016 and (4) airstrikes on non-healthcare infrastructure. These topics of interest are supported by results of the k-means clustering, binomial lasso classification and Cramer’s V coefficients.DiscussionFindings suggest that violence against healthcare infrastructure correlates strongly with specific perpetrators. We hope that the results of this study provide researchers with valuable data and insights that can be used in future analyses to better understand the Syrian conflict.

Syndromic surveillance of respiratory infections during protracted conflict: experiences from northern Syria 2016-2021

“…Influenza-like illnesses (ILIs) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARIs) surveillance in conflict-related humanitarian settings remain understudied despite the high burden of disease ( Al Amad and Almoayed, 2022 ). In Syria, where uprisings in March 2011 descended into a protracted conflict, the public health infrastructure has been severely damaged ( Muzzall et al, 2021 ;Abbara and Ekzayez, 2021 ;Fouad et al, 2017 ;Haar et al, 2018 ). Violence, including against healthcare, has been especially concentrated in northern Syria, where competing warring parties retain tenuous strongholds and control over governorates ( Kieny et al, 2022 ).…”

The cascading impacts of attacks on health in Syria: A qualitative study of health system and community impacts

“…For example, the growing burden of chronic illness resulted from several layered processes including donors sometimes prioritizing funding for trauma care (resulting in fewer chronic care services) and patients who were afraid of violence against healthcare waiting longer to seek care (an adaptive response which has been identified in previous studies) and task shifting of health workers towards emergency care. [7][8][9][10] Interventions at any of these steps in the cascade could mitigate the burden of disease. This study also found that knock-on effects reached far beyond the health outcomes, with impacts on population displacement as well as social cohesion.…”

“…[9] As the conflict progressed, hundreds of aerial bombardments of healthcare facilities were recorded over the years, mostly in parts of the countries opposed to the Syrian government, along with other forms of violence against healthcare including the interruption of healthcare access and supplies. [10] Many involved parties, including the governments of Syria, Russia, the United States and multiple nonstate armed groups including the Islamic State, al-Nusra Front and others, are implicated in such violence, however the vast majority of strikes on health were conducted by Syrian government and aligned Russian forces in opposition-controlled areas, primarily the cities of Idlib and northern Aleppo. [9][10][11].…”

Enhanced mechanical properties of porcelain ceramic tile/Kevlar fabric composite with bio‐inspired shell‐like structure

“…Recent world events have emphasized the urgent demand to develop civilian infrastructures in public areas to withstand sudden shocks and explosive loads to ensure the safety of the civics. 1,2 This can be achieved by utilizing common architectural ceramic tiles with synchronously improved strength, toughness, and impact resistance properties. The traditional porcelain ceramic tile is a costeffective building material derived from minerals that has been widely applied to numerous fields such as architecture, electronic panels, and protective armor.…”

“…Recent world events have emphasized the urgent demand to develop civilian infrastructures in public areas to withstand sudden shocks and explosive loads to ensure the safety of the civics 1,2 . This can be achieved by utilizing common architectural ceramic tiles with synchronously improved strength, toughness, and impact resistance properties.…”