Deadliest March yet for Syrians — 6,000 dead

BEIRUT: March was the bloodiest month yet in Syria’s 2-year-old conflict with more than 6,000 documented deaths, a leading anti-regime activist group said Monday, blaming the increase on heavier shelling and more violent clashes.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the increased toll is likely incomplete because both the Syrian Army and the groups fighting President Bashar Assad’s government often underreport their dead in the civil war.
“Both sides are hiding information,” Abdul-Rahman said by phone from Britain, where his group is based. “It is very difficult to get correct info on the fighters because they don’t want the information to hurt morale.”
The numbers, while provided by only one group, support the appraisal of the conflict offered by many Syria watchers: The civil war is largely a military stalemate that is destroying the country’s social fabric and taking a huge toll on civilians.
The increase also reflects the continuing spread of major hostilities to new parts of Syria. While clashes continue in Aleppo, Damascus and Homs, Syria’s three largest cities, fighters have launched an offensive in recent weeks to seize towns and army bases in the southern province of Daraa, largely with the help of an influx of foreign-funded weapons.
The Observatory, which works through a network of contacts in Syria, said those killed in March included similar numbers of combatants on both sides: 1,486 fighters and army defectors and 1,464 soldiers from the Syrian Army.
His total death toll for the conflict through the end of March was 62,554, a number he acknowledged as incomplete, suggesting the true figure could be twice as high.
Besides the underreporting of dead fighters by both sides, he mentioned the tens of thousands of missing persons and captives held by the regime and the fighters. He also said more than 12,000 pro-government gunmen known as “shabiha,” along with government informers may have been killed by the opposition.