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Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Monday said that the death toll in war-stricken Syria has exceeded an astounding 160,000. The activist group said that it has documented exactly 162,402 deaths since the uprising began in March 2011. The number includes rebels, civilians, members of the military, members of militia like the Lebanese Hezbollah and foreign fighters involved in the war.
The Observatory said that 53,978 of the dead were civilians, including 5,586 women and 8,607 children. 37,685 Syrian soldiers, 26,858 rebel fighters, 25,147 pro-government fighters, including 438 Hezbollah militants and 1,224 Shia foreign fighters, have died in the conflict. 13,529 foreigners and other fighters were also killed in the conflict. There were also 2,891 unidentified bodies and 2,314 of soldiers who had switched loyalties and fought for rebel forces.
The Observatory considers its numbers as rough estimates and said that the actual figure of the total death toll must be higher than sum of the subcategories.
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is the only organization providing a reliable death toll in Syria. The Syrian government doesn’t publicly give out the number of its casualties. The UN had stopped its tally last July, saying it could not verify its sources. Their tally last stood at 100,000. The Observatory gets its numbers from activists on the ground in Syria. The numbers are based on the names of the dead, collected by activists and documented in morgues, hospitals and in video materials.
The Syrian uprising began as peaceful protests against President Assad’s rule in March 2011. Since then, it has evolved into an all-out civil with sectarian implications, pitting the mostly Sunni Muslim rebels against the Alawite dominated Assad government. Foreign fighters and rebels who have taken to hard-line ideologies have played an important role in the conflict, nullifying the West’s support to the rebellion so that Assad may be overthrown.