Last month deadliest in Syria conflict: 6000 dead

The month of March was the deadliest in Syria's two-year conflict, with more than 6,000 people killed, a monitoring group said on Monday.

"At least 6,005 people were killed in March. A total of 2,080 were civilians, among them 298 children aged under 16. Another 291 fatalities were women," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman.

Most rebel fighters in Syria's conflict are civilians who have taken up arms to fight against forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
Of the total killed in March, at least 2,074 were rebel fighters, among them 86 former Syrian army soldiers who defected and joined the insurgency, Abdel Rahman said.

Also among them were 588 rebels whose names the group could not verify, including "a large number of non-Syrian fighters," said the Observatory, which relies on a network of activists, lawyers and medics for its information.

Also killed were 1,464 troops loyal to the Assad regime, Abdel Rahman told AFP.

The Observatory also reported the deaths of 387 people whose identities were impossible to verify.