UNHCR announced today that 306.887 civilians have been killed in Syria during the war that broke out in March 2011, in the highest death toll recorded to date by that UN agency.
The war in Syria erupted after the suppression of peaceful protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011 and turned into a multi-faceted, protracted war.
Most front lines have been frozen for years, but the violence and humanitarian crisis continues with millions still displaced within Syria's borders.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said the latest analysis gives her "a clearer sense of the severity and scale of the war".
The account includes those killed as a direct result of combat operations and not those who died from lack of health care or access to food or clean water, nor combat deaths.
The leading cause of civilian deaths was so-called "multiple weapons" (35.1%) which includes conflict, ambushes and massacres, a UN report accompanying the statement showed. The second cause of death was from heavy weapons (23.3%).
Source: CNA
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