U.N.: Death toll reaches 3,000 in Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- The death toll in seven months of protests against President Bashar Assad in Syria reached 3,000, the United Nations said.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the toll included at least 187 children and that 100 people died in the past 10 days alone, the BBC reported Friday.

The United Nations also reported hundreds of Syrians have been arrested since the protests began.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in its reports on violence, said at least 36 people had been killed Thursday, including 25 soldiers. The organization said the worst of the fighting was reported in Banash and that casualties also were reported in Daraa and Homs.

Pillay warned that Syria's "ruthless repression" threatened to drag the country into a "full-blown civil war."

The government blames thugs and armed gangs backed by unnamed foreign governments for the trouble and says 1,100 security force members have been killed.

Pillay said the international community bore the onus to "take protective action in a collective manner."

U.N. spokesman Rupert Colville said hundreds of Syrians have been detained and tortured or had disappeared. Also, the government was targeting families supporting the opposition, he said.

So far, diplomatic actions weren't "producing results and people continue to be killed every single day," Colville said. "Just hoping things will get better isn't good enough, clearly."