More than 30000 killed in 18-month Syria revolt

More than 30,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in violence since the outbreak of a revolt against President Bashar Assad in March last year, a monitoring group said Wednesday. "At least 21,534 civilians, 7,322 soldiers and 1,168 defectors have been killed in the past 18 months," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. Included in the civilian toll are non-military individuals who took up arms to join the insurgency, Abdel Rahman said. The toll does not include thousands of people arbitrarily detained and held in Syrian jails, he added, nor does it include hundreds of unidentified corpses, most of which were found across the war-torn country in the past three months. The toll also excludes "thousands of shabbiha (pro-regime militiamen) killed," said Abdel Rahman. "More than 30,000 people killed in 18 months -- that means more than 100 killed each day, yet the international community and Arab countries keep saying 'something' must be done for Syria," said Abdel Rahman. The Daily Star