UN urges halt to suffering after Syria killings

The United Nations (UN) on Tuesday urged a halt to suffering in western Syria, reporting whole families were massacred in a wave of sectarian violence that monitors say killed over 1,000 civilians.

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“There is a huge number of people who have been suffering in Syria, in the coastal areas for five days -- and this needs to stop,” UN human rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told a media briefing.

The UN’s OHCHR rights office has so far documented the killing of lll civilians, but said the process of verification was ongoing and the actual number of people killed would be significantly higher.

Of those Ill slain civilians, there were 90 men, 18 women, two girls and one boy.

OHCHR follows a strict verification procedure which takes time.