Syria News Update: 6,000 Killed in March in Bloodiest Month of Conflict

The civil war in Syria has been raging for more than two years, but March was its bloodiest month, with over 6,000 deaths, according to the activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"The Observatory gave figures of 1,486 rebels and army defectors and 1,464 Syrian army soldiers killed, along with 2,080 civilians, 298 of them children and 291 women. In addition, the group listed 387 unidentified civilians and 588 unidentified fighters," The Guardian writes.

Most international aid and human rights groups put the total number of deaths from the conflict above 60,000, though almost everyone acknowledges that number is probably an underestimate, since the authoritarian regime of Bashar al-Assad rarely reports deaths of his own troops or Syrian civilians they have killed.

In February, the United Nations estimated a total death toll for the conflict of 70,000 people, but some estimates run as high as twice that number.

"The upsurge in casualties is thought to be due to heavier shelling and the spread of hostilities to new parts of the country, such as the towns and army bases of the southern province of Daraa, even while clashes continue in Syria's three largest cities, Damascus, Aleppo and Homs," The Guardian writes.

The higher death rate in recent months may also be due to an increase in supplies to rebel forces. While most other countries support the rebels in theory, practical aid has been slow in coming, as the international community is loath to become involved in what many see as an internal Syrian conflict. But with reports of thousands of civilian deaths at the hands of the regime, some other nations have begun offering covert aid.

The United States has begun supplying non-weapon relief packages to the rebels, but some reports say the rebels have bee able to buy or trade for weapons, and that many sympathetic countries are looking the other way as they do.

Thus the rebels are able to fight back against Syrian forces when previously they would have to retreat, forcing more deaths on both sides, but allowing the rebels the opportunity to gain ground in their struggle. In the meantime, civilians who have not been able to flee the country are caught in the crossfire.