CAIRO: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on Sunday announced that his government would support the Syrian opposition and that Cairo had cut diplomatic ties with Damascus and would close down its embassy in Cairo. The president added that there was no room for the Lebanon's Hezbollah in Syria. Egypt will also withdraw its envoy from Damascus. Warning the real figure is likely to be much higher, the United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay announced last week that the death toll in Syria is nearly 93,000, with more than 5,000 people killed a month as the situation in the country has "deteriorated drastically" over the past year. "The constant flow of killings continues at shockingly high levels – with more than 5,000 killings documented every month since last July, including a total of just under 27,000 new killings since 1 December," Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human rights, said in a news release. According to an analysis carried out by data specialists on behalf of the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), at least 92,901 people were killed in fighting between the Government and forces seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad between March 2011 and April 2013. "Unfortunately...this is most likely a minimum casualty figure. The true number of those killed is potentially much higher," said Ms. Pillay, urging the warring parties to declare an immediate ceasefire "before tens of thousands more people are killed or injured." The latest compilation updates a figure of 60,000 documented deaths during the time period up to 30 November 2012. BN
