UNICEF says 1,600 killed in Syria last week

BEIRUT: At least 1,600 people were killed last week in Syria in the deadliest seven days since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011, the UN children’s fund UNICEF said Sunday.
The watchdog Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said August marked the bloodiest month, with at least 5,440 people killed.
According to the Observatory, at least 26,283 people have been killed in Syria since the revolt began in March last year — 18,695 civilians, 1,079 defectors and 6,509 troops.
The toll does not account for thousands of people missing in Syria’s jails, said Rami Abdel Rahman, the Observatory’s director.
Due to restrictions on the media in Syria, the figures are impossible to verify.
The civil war witnessed a major turning point in August when Assad’s forces began widely using air power for the first time to crush the revolt. The fighting also reached Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, which had been relatively quiet for most of the 17-month-old revolt.
Last week, activists reported that between 300 and 600 people were killed in the Damascus suburb of Daraya during days of shelling an