- City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
- Dubai 04:32 05:49 12:21 15:48 18:47 20:04
Residents carry the coffins of people whom protesters say were killed by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar Al Assad, during their funeral in Deraa on Tuesday June 26. (Reuters)
More 15,800 people have been killed since the outbreak of the Syrian revolt 15 months ago, a human rights watchdog said on Wednesday, adding that the past seven days had been the bloodiest so far.
"The pace of the killings has escalated," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"The last week was the bloodiest week of the Syrian Revolution," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said by telephone, adding that 916 people were killed from June 20 through 26.
Of the 15,804 people killed since March last year, 4,681 had lost their lives since a UN-backed ceasefire was supposed to take effect on April 12, he said.
Of those, roughly a quarter -- 1,197 -- have been killed since the UN observer mission intended to oversee the peace plan suspended its operations on June 16 in the face of the mounting violence.
"The last month, from May 26 to June 26, was the deadliest since the start of the protests. During this period, 3,426 people were killed," Abdel Rahman said.
"The escalation of killings is due to the silence of the international community toward the crimes of the regime, its repression of the revolution, which has provoked violence from the opposition, and the unpunished shelling of towns and villages," he added.
Abdel Rahman's comments came after 129 people were killed in violence on Tuesday, 79 of them civilians, according to the Observatory's figures
Meanwhile, Syria on Wednesday stormed out of a UN debate on a freshly critical report on the rights abuses in the conflict-torn country.
"We will not participate in this flagrantly political meeting," said Syrian ambassador Faisal Khabbaz Hamoui, before leaving the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The diplomat denounced a "war of disinformation against Syria" and condemned "criminals" operating there who he said were supported and financed from abroad.
He walked out shortly after the chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria presented the latest report on the deteriorating situation there, citing increasing sectarian killings and the role of pro-government militia in the Houla massacre in May.
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