Syria death toll is probably near 70,000, UN says

Organization’s human rights chief says almost 10,000 people killed in recent weeks

By AP and ToI Staff 12 February 2013, 8:28 pm

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A man carries a body among ruins in the Syrian city of Aleppo, Sunday (photo credit: Aleppo Media Center AMC/AP)

The number of people killed in Syria’s civil war is probably approaching 70,000, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said Tuesday. Less than six weeks ago, Pillay said the death toll had exceeded 60,000, a figure she called “truly shocking.”

On Tuesday, she told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that there have probably been almost 10,000 new deaths in recent weeks.

Pillay said the council’s deep division and inaction over the nearly two-year-old Syrian conflict “has been disastrous, and civilians on all sides have paid the price.”

She again urged the council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court.

Earlier Tuesday, a major Syrian opposition faction accused the government of a deadly bombing at a border checkpoint, saying it narrowly missed 13 leaders of the group including its president.

Syrian National Council President George Sabra told reporters in Turkey that the car bomb a day earlier went off shortly before the SNC president and 12 other members of the group’s executive council drove through a border crossing to Turkey.

“We heard an explosion nearly half an hour before we reached the border crossing point,” Sabra said.

Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler said the death toll from the attack rose Tuesday to 14 from 13.