More than 13,000 killed in Syria since revolt outbreak: NGO

More than 13,000 people have been killed in Syria since an anti-regime revolt broke out in March last year, Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP on Sunday.

“In total, 13,004 people were killed,” Abdel Rahman said, adding that 9,183 of them were civilians.

Another 3,072 were regime troops and 749 were army defectors, he added, noting that civilians who had taken up arms during the increasingly militarized revolt were being counted under the category of “civilians.”

The violence has been relentless despite an April 12 ceasefire brokered by U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan.

“Since the ceasefire came into effect, 1,881 people have been killed,” said Abdel Rahman, referring to clashes between rebels and regime troops, repression by government forces and bomb attacks.

The Observatory’s latest figures were published a day after at least 92 people, a third of them children, were killed in Houla, a town in the flashpoint central province of Homs.