Syria: UN puts crackdown death toll at 2,600

Damascus, 12 Sept. (AKI) - At least 2,600 people have died during the uprising that seeks to topple president Bashar al-Assad's government, according to the United Nations.

Speaking Monday in Geneva, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the number is based on "reliable sources on the ground."

Navi made his comments during an address during the opening of a three-week meeting of the UN Human Rights Council.

Syrian forces continued the country's crackdown on activists arresting 20 during a series of raids early Monday in a number of cities around the country, according to a news report.

"The thugs of (Syrian President Bashar) al-Assad and their officers are continuing their crackdown on everybody whom they believe is against them," the spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella group that helps organize and document protests across Syria, told the German Press Agency dpa.

The group says Syrian security forces killed at least 113 civilians were last week in the city of Homs, dpa reported.