The figure announced on Friday included civilians and fighters and was based on strict methodology requiring the full name of the deceased, as well as an established date and location of death, the office said.

One in every 13 victims was a woman or a child, she said.

“It indicates a minimum verifiable number, and is certainly an under-count of the actual number of killings,” she added.

Bachelet said the previous update by her office, in August 2014, reported that at least 191,369 people had been killed in the war.

Her office was working on a statistical model to provide a more complete picture, which could also help establish accountability for some killings, she said.

The largest number of documented killings, 51,731, was recorded in the Aleppo governorate, long held by the opposition, which became a flashpoint in the conflict.

The conflict, which started as a mass uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s rule in March 2011, quickly morphed into a full-fledged war. It sparked the world’s biggest refugee crisis, with Syria’s neighbours hosting 5.6 million people and European countries more than one million.

Al-Assad has recovered most of Syria, but significant areas remain outside his control: Turkish forces are deployed in much of the north and northwest – the last significant bastion of anti-al-Assad rebels – and United States forces are stationed in the Kurdish-controlled east and northeast.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that 500,000 people have been killed in the war and that it is examining a further 200,000 cases.

Karen Koning AbuZayd, a member of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria investigating war crimes, told the council on Thursday that incidents of unlawful and incommunicado detention by government forces remain “unabated”.

“This is no time for anyone to think that Syria is a country fit for its refugees to return. The war on Syrian civilians continues,” she said.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES