More than 2,900 people have died in the six months since the start of anti-government protests in Syria, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Thursday. "According to the detailed list of names of individuals we've been keeping, the total number of people killed since protests began in Syria now stands at more than 2,900," Commission spokesman Rupert Colville told AFP.
According to Colville, that figure could increase because "quite a lot more people" have been reported missing in Syria since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's government in mid-March.
Meanwhile, 12 people were killed in clashes between government soldiers and deserters in villages of Idlib province in northwest Syria on Thursday, a human rights group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that dozens of people were wounded. The Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees conveyed soldiers and security forces raided the villages backed by tanks.
