6,000 killed in Syria in March

More than 6,000 people were killed in Syria in March, making it the deadliest month since the two-year long conflict against the government began in 2011, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based leading activists group.

SOHR is an anti-government group that monitors human rights violations on both sides of the conflict via a network of contacts across Syria. It recorded 6,005 deaths last month, including at least 291 women, 298 children, 387 unidentified civilians, 1486 rebel fighters and army defectors and 1464 government troops.

Rami Abdel Rahman, the director of SOHR, said the toll is likely to be incomplete as both the Syrian army and the rebel groups fighting President Assad’s government tend to under-report their dead in the civil war. “Both sides are hiding information, we estimate it is actually around 120,000 people”, he added.

SOHR claims that the March toll surpassed what had previously been the deadliest month in August 2012 when airstrikes, clashes and shelling killed more than 5,400 people.

On the 18^th of February 2013, a UN-appointed Commission of Inquiry on Syria issued a report that stated more than 70,000 people were killed in Syria since the uprising began.

Clashes still continue to rage in the northern city of Aleppo, central city of Homs and around the capital of Damascus with rebels fighting against the Syrian government who describe the conflict as a foreign conspiracy and claim that it is fighting against armed terrorists gangs.

Aastha Gill