BEIRUT — The civil war in Syria has now killed more than 100,000 people, a grim new estimate on Wednesday that comes as the conflict is spreading beyond its borders and hopes are fading for a settlement to end the bloodshed.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has been tracking the death toll through a network of activists in the country, said most of the 100,191 killed in the last 27 months were combatants.
The regime losses were estimated at nearly 43,000, including 169 fighters from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a recent entrant into the conflict.
The Observatory said 36,661 of the dead are civilians. Recorded deaths among the rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad reached more than 18,000, including 2,518 foreign fighters.
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Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said he suspected that the toll actually was higher.
The United Nations recently estimated that 93,000 people were killed between March 2011, when the crisis started, and the end of April 2013, concurring with Abdul-Rahman that the actual toll is probably much higher.