U.N.: Nearly 93,000 Killed in Syrian Civil War

Syrians are being killed at an average rate of 5,000 per month, the U.N. said Thursday as it raised the overall death toll in the civil war to nearly 93,000, with civilians bearing the brunt of the attacks.

The grim estimate reflects the growing sectarian nature of the bloodshed as the regime of President Bashar Assad scores a series of battlefield successes against the rebels.

The toll is also a reminder of the international community’s helplessness in the face of a conflict that has displaced several million people and spilled over into neighboring countries with alarming frequency.

In the latest violence, a mortar round slammed into an area near the runway at Damascus International Airport, briefly disrupting flights to and from the Syrian capital, officials said. The attack Thursday came a few weeks after the government announced it had secured the airport road that had been targeted by rebels in the past.

It was the first known attack to hit inside the airport, located south of the capital, and highlighted the difficulty Assad faces in maintaining security even in areas firmly under his control.

In Geneva, the U.N. human rights office said it had documented 92,901 killings in Syria between March 2011 and the end of April 2013. But the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, said the exact number could be much higher.

The conflict began in 2011 as largely peaceful protests of Assad’s autocratic regime. After a relentless government crackdown on the demonstrators, many Syrians took up arms against the regime, and the uprising became a civil war.

The government has gained momentum since recapturing the strategic town of Qusair near the border with Lebanon.

Most of the armed rebels in Syria are from the country’s Sunni majority, while Assad has retained core support among the minorities, including his own Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

The international community has been unable to end the violence and a date for a peace conference proposed by the U.S. and Russia weeks ago has been shelved.

President Barack Obama continues to review and consider additional options for U.S. involvement, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

This article appeared in print on page 1 of the June 14th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.