Syrian death toll rises to 312,000

More than 312,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in March 2011, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Tuesday. Director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that as many as 90,506 of the victims were civilians, including 16,000 children. The total figure has risen by 12,000 people since the group’s previous report in September.

The death toll includes 53,208 rebels and 110,000 pro-regime fighters, of which 60,000 were Syrian soldiers and 1,387 were local militiamen, members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and other foreign fighters.

As many as 55,000 jihadists have also been killed in the fighting, most of them from the Daesh militant group or former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh Ash-Sham Front.

The human rights organisation has also documented the deaths of 3,683 unidentified persons in the same period.