15,000 Syrian women, girls killed by Assad forces: report

More than 15,000 women and girls have been killed in Syria by pro-government forces since the revolution began in 2011, activists said in a report published on Tuesday.

Forces loyal to president Bashar al-Assad have killed 15,372 women, including 4,194 girls since March 2011, the Syrian Network for Human Rights said, speaking on the International Day for the Elimination of the Violence against Women. 

About six percent of the total number of those killed in the Syrian civil war were women, the report said. 

The network said that Islamic State (IS) militants had killed 81 women, including the stoning of five women, in Hama, Dair ez Zor, Raqqa and the surrounding area.

The report said that 25 women were shot by Kurdish fighters, and 255 others were killed by the other armed groups.

The activist network said that, from the beginning of the civil war, Assad loyalists had detained 6,500 women, IS had detained 486 women, and the other armed groups have detained 580 women. Around 2,500 women are either still being detained or are missing.

The report said that more than 2.1 million Syrian women have fled their country in attempt to save their lives.

Syria's civil war began in March 2011 as a peaceful protest movement inspired by the Arab Spring and demanding Assad's ouster, but morphed into a brutal war after pro-Assad forces unleashed a massive crackdown against dissent.

The war has resulted in the deaths of an estimated 191,400 people, and displaced roughly half of the country's population, according to the UN. 

The majority of fatalities are reportedly of civilians, primarily killed by pro-Assad forces, although other groups are also implicated.