In recent weeks, at least 4,500 have been killed, at least a third civilians. As the whole country turns into a battlefield, more and more Syrians are fleeing their homes for safer regions or neighboring states.

Damascus (AsiaNews/Agencies) - This year, nearly 4,500 people were killed during the holy month of Ramadan in Syria's civil war, two thirds of them combatants (regular soldiers, defectors and rebels), and one third civilians, with at least 300 children. Two years after unrest turned into a civil war, the conflict is now averaging about 5,000 dead a month.

"More than 4,420 people were killed over the past month," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman, far lower compared with August last year, when 5,500, most of civilians, were killed.

In the past 12 months, as the uprising grew increasingly militarized, and battle lines shifted, the nature of the conflict has in fact changed.

Many civilians have fled abroad or to safer regions near refugee camps. At the same time, foreign fighters have rushed to the country swelling rebel ranks, especially Islamists, to fight to Assad.

Yet, in early June, after the fall of al-Qusair to government forces, the Assad regime has gained momentum and strength, turning towards Homs, large parts of which have been retaken from rebel control.

At present, Assad's forces hold most of the southern part of the country. Despite losses and divisions among 30 different groups, rebel forces are hanging onto the northern regions around Aleppo and along the Turkish border.

However, because of daily fighting, frontlines are shifting all the time as evinced by the visit made yesterday by Jarba Ahmed, head of the Syrian Opposition Council, to the southern province of Deraa.

The United Nations estimates that since the start of the violence, more than 100,000 people have been killed with millions of refugees now languishing in camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.

• syria
• civil
• war
• shifting
• frontlines
• divisions
• violence