A new statement from the Syrian National Council (SNC) today says that “nearly 800” people were killed in fighting in the nation over the past week, with the majority killed in “indiscriminate shelling” by the regime.
The statement did not specify how they came by those figures, but the overall toll does seem possible, as the toll on each day has been in the realm of 100 killed, and on Friday some rebels put the single day toll at 190 killed.
Violence has been rising precipitously since the first of June, when the rebels abandoned the UN-brokered ceasefire, launching several offensives. Since then the Assad regime has fought back, attempting to retake territory, particularly in the far north.
Reliable death tolls are almost impossible to come by in Syria, as there is no private media in the country, and both regime and rebel figures are inevitably skewed to place their opponents in the worst possible light. Rebel statements on death tolls usually include their own fighters among “civilians” slain, while regime tolls almost always include only combatants slain, and downplay their own losses.