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Wednesday, Jan 2, 2013 3:24 PM UTC

UN says far more deaths in Syria than earlier estimates

Around 60,000 people have been killed in the civil war, far more than what human rights organizations had thought

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Topics: Syria, Bashar al-Assad, Civil War, Middle East, United Nations,

UN says far more deaths in Syria than earlier estimatesSmoke rises from buildings from heavy shelling in Homs, Syria, on Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012. (Credit: AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video)

The U.N. Wednesday upped its estimate of the number deaths in Syria’s civil war to 60,000 –  significantly higher than previous estimates. The U.N. tally includes over 3,000 children last year.

Human rights activists in Syria had put the death toll at around 45,000 according to the AP. In 2012 alone, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, 36,332 civilians were killed. The network specifically decried the Assad regimes record for killing civilians women and children:

The proportion of women and children to the total number of victims is 5.2 which is a conclusive  evidence that the Syrian government is deliberately targeting civilians as the internationally recognized ratio in the case of regular warfare is 2%. The Syrian government has killed more than double that percentage and in some months the percentage was more than three times that benchmark.

Last week the U.N.-Arab League envoy warned that 2013 could see over 100,000 more deaths in Syria if the civil war does not come to an end.

 

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com. More Natasha Lennard.

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