Russian air strikes in the Syrian civil war have killed almost 8,300 civilians since it began four years ago, according to the report. Among the fatalities were around 2,000 children, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Observatory gets its information from a network of doctors and activists in Syria. The information is often not independently verifiable. However, they have proven to be reliable in the past.
40 percent of the deaths are civilians
The Observatory also killed some 5,500 rebel group fighters and more than 5,200 supporters of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia. Civilians thus accounted for more than 40 percent of the fatalities, it said.
Russia is an important ally of the Syrian government in the conflict. Russian jets started attacking rebel areas on 30 September 2015. With Russian help, the government has succeeded in recovering important areas. After more than eight years of civil war, the supporters of rulers Bashar al-Assad dominate about two-thirds of the country's territory.
In the Russian and Syrian air raids, hospitals and other vital infrastructure are hit again and again. Critics accuse the allies of deliberately foreseeing this. UN General Secretary António Guterres ordered in August to investigate the destruction in the last large rebel area Idlib.