Death Toll Figures Vary Widely on Another Bloody Friday in Syria

Various Opposition Groups Put Toll Between 50 and 103

Friday is usually the deadliest day of the week in Syria, largely due to greater numbers of protesters in the streets after attending mosque and more opportunities to get caught in the middle of the ongoing civil war in the country.

Today appears to have been no different, though the proliferation of different opposition groups providing their own official death tolls to the foreign media has created a wide variation in possible tolls, from “at least 50” killed in one report to 103 in another.

The deaths included a large number of civilians, including between 12 and 14 children. The major incidents were in Homs, Hama, and Idlib, with some additional violence in Aleppo.

Syria’s state media provided some reporting on the violence as well, confirming at least four members of security forces killed. The deaths of members of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) are entirely unknown, as the state media never reports them and the opposition simply folds them into the overall civilian toll.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.