Death toll from Syria's civil war surpasses 100,000

[News_Editor]

NEW YORK CITY (BNO NEWS) -- More than 100,000 people have now been killed in Syria's ongoing civil war, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday, more than two years after the conflict began with a government crackdown against pro-democracy protesters.

Ban revealed the updated death toll during a joint press conference with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in New York, where both politicians appealed for new efforts to convene a peace conference. "Military and violent actions must be stopped by both parties, and it is thus imperative to have a peace conference in Geneva as soon as possible," Ban said.

Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, had said on June 13 that at least 92,901 people were killed in fighting between government troops and forces seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad in the period from March 2011 through April 2013. Thursday's new figure indicates the UN documented at least 7,099 additional deaths since last month.

"The conflict is now continuing for almost two and a half years. More than 100,000 people have been killed," Ban said during Thursday's press conference. "Millions of people have either been displaced or become refugees in neighboring countries. We have to bring this to an end."

British International Development Secretary Justine Greening said the updated death toll demonstrates "the scale of the ongoing tragedy and the desperate need for real action from the international community." She said the British government continues to lead by providing medical help, food, shelter and clean water.

"Other donors must now honor their funding promises and it is time that all parties to the conflict allow humanitarian access to all areas of Syria. I call on all sides to respect the work of humanitarian agencies and to move towards a political resolution to this crisis," Greening said.

In June, Pillay said the number of deaths in Syria continues at "shockingly high levels" and that more than more than 5,000 killings have been documented every month since July 2012. "Unfortunately, this is most likely a minimum casualty figure. The true number of those killed is potentially much higher," she said.

The June figure was based on information from eight different sources, resulting in a combined list of 263,055 reported killings. But deaths which did not include the identity of the victim, as well as the date and location of the death, were excluded from the confirmed list of casualties.

Each reported killing was then compared to all the other reported killings in order to identify duplicates, resulting in 92,091 documented cases of individuals killed. But 37,988 reported killings which contained insufficient information were excluded from the final death toll, but many of them may have been victims of the conflict while other victims may have gone unreported.

Up to November 2012, a figure of 60,000 documented deaths was recorded. About 80 percent of the victims documented were male, with the sharpest increase in deaths since November 2012 in Rural Damascus and Aleppo. The UN also documented the the killings of at least 6,561 minors, including at least 1,729 children under ten years old.

"There are also well-documented cases of individual children being tortured and executed, and entire families, including babies, being massacred," Pillay said in June, adding that along with the devastatingly high death toll, this is a terrible reminder of "just how vicious this conflict has become."

(Copyright 2013 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: [email protected].)

[boomerangutang]

What a bunch of latent ill-will must have been festering in that country. Similar, in some ways to Yemen and Libya, to use recent examples. Which countries are next, for eruptions of prolonged killing frenzies?

If intelligent aliens were watching this from afar, what would they think about this weird human species? They might think that humans appear to get along and do normal things and interact civilly. Yet, all of a sudden, something small can change (a vendor kills himself, for example, as happened in Tunisia), and megatons of shit hit the fan. It's as though a switch were flipped and everybody in the country goes beserk.

Most of the crap happens in Middle East. Could it be partly due to the ingrained (and forced) belief system of Islam? I have my thoughts about that, but would probably be booted off T.Visa for expressing them.

[soihok]

How sad.

RIP brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons ............................

Should never be allowed to happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7WPI4TJImo

[soihok]

Excuse me if I am wrong, but are we not,

Fathers - Mothers - Brothers - Sisters - Daughters - Sons.

Because I thought we were.

[lemoncake]

Far from over with many more to die as more jihadists are joining.

Only hope is it does not spil over to neighboring country's as it does have a potential to turn into a full scale regional war.

[Scott]

A number of off-topic posts and replies have been removed.

If you do not care about the situation in Syria, then please refrain from baiting other posters by posting your crass comments in the thread.

Stay on topic, please.

[Steely Dan]

The bloodletting is all part of a bigger picture, namely a Sunni versus Shia feud dating back to shortly after the death of Mohammad. The West and Russia would do well to stay out of it entirely instead of being dragged in on either side.

[lemoncake]

The bloodletting is all part of a bigger picture, namely a Sunni versus Shia feud dating back to shortly after the death of Mohammad. The West and Russia would do well to stay out of it entirely instead of being dragged in on either side.

I do not think Russia is interested in being physically involved, it is interested for conflict to continue because they supply the weaponry and ammunition.

Just few weeks ago they pulled out all personnel out of Syria.

[boomerangutang]

Far from over with many more to die as more jihadists are joining.

Only hope is it does not spil over to neighboring country's as it does have a potential to turn into a full scale regional war.

It's a region with nearly no natural resources except sand, sun and black oil. It's been beyond its carrying capacity for humans for 3,000 years. Before humans came along, it was relatively lush, with cheetahs, giraffes, forests, etc. If nothing else, these internecine wars are putting a slight dent in gross overpopulation.

[Steely Dan]

What's going on in Syria amounts also to ethnic cleansing of Christians, which is a pattern that is repeated throughout the middle east, after the Jews were themselves ethnically cleansed from Arab lands after the 1948 and 1967 wars. The silence from Western nations concerning this is almost total.

http://www.jns.org/news-briefs/2013/7/25/syrian-christian-describes-religious-cleansing-of-village-by-islamic-extremists

[Scott]

Troll posts removed.

[soihok]

At the risk of being warned, again.

Children are dying.

I am from England working in Islamic Malaysia, my two right hand men are from Bangladesh, they are stars.

Don't judge any book by its cover......................it will come back and bite you in the as*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PhOfJhJKZk

[simple1]

For those truly interested in the latest analysis on the Syrian civil war go to:

http://www.openbriefing.org/issuedesks/politicalviolence/the-emergence-of-shia-militias-in-syria/

http://www.openbriefing.org/regionaldesks/middleeast/impact-of-the-conflict-on-syrian-economy-and-livelihoods/