Syria death toll passes 60,000 says UN

Since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011 more than 60,000 people have been killed, according to the UN.

Previous estimates by Syrian opposition groups assumed there were closer to 50,000 casualties. However the study commissioned by the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Navi Pillay, collated data from seven different sources and found that the figure is now rising. It described the bloodshed as “truly shocking”.

The report was published just hours after one of the most deadly attacks on a Damascus petrol station, caused by a missile from a government warplane, which killed 70 people.

The report, entitled “Preliminary Statistical Analysis of Documentation of Killings in Syria”, also found that 76.1% of the victims were male and that Homs province is the deadliest location, closely followed by rural Damascas, Idlib and Allepo. The deadliest month to date was August 2012, when up to 6,000 deaths were reported.

Ms Pillay said: “Given [that] there has been no let-up in the conflict since the end of November, we can assume that more than 60,000 people have been killed by the beginning of 2013.” She also stressed that the deaths were caused by both sides of the conflict, and that increasing sectarianism is making it difficult to find a solution to the violence.

Ms Pillay warned that the violence in Syria has accelerated and that many more deaths will be reported if the violence continues. She also highlighted, “the failure of the international community, in particular the Security Council, to take concrete actions to stop the blood-letting shames us all. Collectively, we have fiddled at the edges while Syria burns.”

Eleanor Mackay