Syria toll 60,000

Syria toll noted that more than 60,000 civilians Syria and rebels have been killed       in the country’s civil war. United Nations announced the toll as truly shocking

The result of five month UN project to cross reference names of the dead. suggests that previous analysis of the carnage caused by almost two years of protests, repression, and fighting issued by opposition groups were too conservative. At least 30 civilians were killed Wednesday when Syrian warplanes bombed a gas station in a suburb on the eastern edge of Damascus, opposition campaigners told news agencies, as the United Nations announced that the death toll from the conflict had surpassed 60,000

The reported airstrike continued a day of intense violence in the country.Earlier, rebels in the north attacked a sprawling air base as the opposition expanded its offensive on military airports.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebel assault on the Afis military air base near Taftanaz was preceded by heavy shelling of the area, and the fighters appeared to be trying to storm the facility.

Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman described the attack as one "of the most intense" on the airfield. There was no immediate account of the fighting around the air base from Syrian state media

There was no breakdown by ethnicity or information about whether the dead were rebels, soldiers or civilians. Previously, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had put the toll at around 45,000 confirmed dead but said the real number was likely to be much higher.