Syria death toll at least 93,000, says UN
At least 93,000 people have been killed in Syria since the start of the conflict, according to latest United Nations
figures.
figures.
Syria conflict
This represents a rise of more than 30,000 since the UN last issued figures covering the period to November 2012.
At least 5,000 people have been dying in Syria every month since last July, the UN's human rights body says.
But it says these statistics are an underestimate as it believes many deaths have not been reported.
Over 80% of those killed were men, but the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says it has also documented the deaths of more than 1,700 children under the age of 10.
Children in Syria were suffering "maybe the heaviest toll" of anywhere in the world, said UN special representative Leila Zerrougui, who presented the findings .
"They are killed, they are maimed, they are recruited, they are detained, they are tortured", she told journalists in New York.
The report accused Syrian troops of torturing children suspected of having links to rebel groups.
But it said armed opposition groups, including the Free Syrian Army, were also using children, both in combat and in support roles such as transporting supplies and loading cartridges.
Ceasefire call
OHCHR'S report said the biggest numbers of documented killings throughout the conflict have been recorded in the governorates of rural Damascus (17,800 deaths), Homs (16,400), and Aleppo (11,900).
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