More Than 350,000 Dead in Syria’s Civil War, and That’s an Undercount, UN Says

More than 350,000 people have been killed in Syria’s decadelong civil war, according to the United Nations human rights office, and some 2,700 of those victims are either a woman or a child. And this death toll, while horrifyingly large, is “a minimum verifiable number, and is certainly an undercount,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet told the Human Rights Council on Friday. The figure of 350,209 includes civilians and includes only those for whom there is a full name as well as a date and location of death. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a watchdog based in the United Kingdom, says that 500,000 people have been killed in the civil war and that it is examining another 200,000 cases. In addition, there are some 7 million Syrians who are now refugees from the conflict.