Activists say the death toll in Syria's civil war has topped 136,000 after January was one of the conflict's bloodiest months.
Syrians carrying a body after a reported airstrike in the Tariq al-Bab district of Aleppo on 1 February. Photo: AFP
The prospects of a peaceful outcome look dim after 10 days of talks in Geneva yielded few tangible results and the regime said it was unsure whether it would return to the negotiating table.
The opposition British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the death toll includes almost 48,000 civilians, more than 7300 of them children.
The observatory said the real toll could be much higher because of the extreme secrecy of rebels, jihadists and the regime about casualty figures.
It said at the end of December the toll was 130,433, but fighting between rebels and the government, as well as between them and jihadists, has claimed nearly 6000 lives since then.
The conflict began after a regime crackdown on anti-government demonstrations, sparking an armed uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
In addition to the dead and a much larger number of wounded, millions of people have been displaced internally and as refugees.