94,000 dead in Syria conflict, revised NGO figures show

BEIRUT - Agence France-Presse

This citizen journalism image provided by Lens Young Homsi, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows buildings which were destroyed from Syrian forces shelling, in Homs province, Syria, May 13. AP photo

More than 94,000 people have been killed in more than two years of conflict in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a newly-revised toll on May 14.

The watchdog group said it revised the toll - just two days after it announced a tally of 82,257 dead -after receiving new information from regime-controlled Alawite areas of the Sunni-majority country.

"Based on this information, the number of martyrs and dead killed since the beginning of the Syrian revolution is more than 94,000," it said in a statement.

The group said it had received new figures from areas including Tartus and Latakia - strongholds on the Mediterranean coast of the Alawite minority to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs.

The information showed "that the number of casualties among the ranks of the Alawite community was much higher than the Observatory's statistics which were published two days ago." On Sunday, the Britain-based watchdog which relies on a vast network of activists and medics on the ground put the death toll since the March 2011 start of the anti-regime uprising at 82,257, including 34,473 civilians.