NGO: More than 20,000 people killed in Syria revolt, at least 90 killed across country on Saturday

BEIRUT (AFP) — More than 20,000 people have been killed in Syria since the start of an anti-regime revolt in March 2011, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.

"At least 20,028 people, among them 13,978 civilians and rebels, 968 army defectors and 5,082 members of the regime forces have been killed since the start of the revolt on March 15 of last year," Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Britain-based Observatory, told AFP by phone.

The Observatory counts people who have taken up arms as civilians and keeps a separate tally for army defectors.

At least 90 people were killed across Syria on Saturday, including 29 in northern Aleppo, the country's commercial capital, where regime forces battled rebels in a long-anticipated assault.

In the past week, at least 100 people have been killed every day, including on Friday, when at least 148 people were killed, according to the watchdog's figures.

It is impossible to verify death tolls in Syria. The United Nations stopped counting the casualties of the bloody conflict at the end of 2011.

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