Syria death toll now more than 140,000

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says 140,041 people have been killed since the country's uprising began in March 2011.

The death toll in nearly three years of conflict in Syria has risen to more than 140,000 including nearly 50,000 civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

In a new toll, the Britain-based NGO said 140,041 people had been killed since the uprising began in March 2011, gradually transforming into a bloody civil war.

Of those, nearly 50,000 were civilians who included 7626 children, the group said on Saturday.

More than 24,000 of those killed were rebels, along with another 8972 members of the jihadist Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant and the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front.

The Observatory said 33,591 soldiers had been killed, along with 20,608 members of pro-regime militias.

Lebanon's powerful Shi'ite Hezbollah movement, which is allied with the Syrian regime, has lost 275 fighters in the conflict, the NGO said.

And another 360 fighters from various foreign Shi'ite groups fighting for the Syrian government were killed, it added.

The Observatory also recorded at least 2837 deaths of unidentified individuals.