SNHR says 7,259 Syrians killed in Feb. 6 quake

ALBAWABA - At least 7,259 Syrians died in the massive earthquake that rattled the Arab country and its northern Turkish neighbor nearly a month ago.

Of the total, 4,331 Syrians were killed in the Feb. 6 earthquake in Turkey, according to figures by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), which were emailed to Albawaba.

SNHR is an independent group based in the United Kingdom. It's biography says it monitors casualties in Syria since a civil war erupted there in 2011 and briefs various United Nations agencies on its findings.

Of the total, there were 2,153 children and 1,524 women, SNHR said. 

It said many of the people who were killed in Syria, or 2,534, were in areas outside the control of the central government in Damascus, headed by President Bashar Assad _  the focus of the civil war which aims to unseat him.

Another 394 people were reported killed in areas under government control, according to SNHR.

More than 50,000 people died in the destructive 7.8-magnitude earthquake in both Turkey and Syria, according to updated figures, which include rebel and government-controlled areas in war-torn Syria. It was not immediately clear if the numbers provided by SNHR were included.