UN: death toll from Syrian civil war tops 191,000

FILE - This Aug. 21, 2013, citizen journalism image provided by the Media Office Of Douma City which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian man mourning over a dead body after an alleged poisonous gas attack fired by regime forces, according to activists, in Douma town, Damascus, Syria. An international human rights group says on the anniversary of the deadly chemical attack outside Damascus that “justice remains elusive” for the victims and their families. AP/Media Office Of Douma City

GENEVA  — The United Nations says the death toll from Syria's civil war has risen to more than 191,000 people killed between March 2011 and April 2014.

The figure is the first issued by the U.N.'s human rights office since July 2013, when it documented more than 100,000 killed.

The U.N.'s top human rights official, Navi Pillay, who oversees the Geneva-based office, said Friday the new figures are so much higher because they include additional killings from earlier periods, as well as deaths since the last report.

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