( CNN ) -- The death toll in Syria is probably now approaching 70,000 , United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Tuesday . In early January , Pillay said that 60,000 people in Syria had died , a figure that she called `` truly shocking . '' She blamed the international community for failing to act . At that time , CNN tried to put the number in perspective . Sixty thousand people is roughly the population of Terre Haute , Indiana ; or Cheyenne , Wyoming . It 's how many people would fit in Dodger Stadium , and it 's more than the 50,000-plus U.S. combat deaths in Vietnam . The war in Syria has been raging since March 2011 when protesters , partly inspired by Arab Spring uprisings in the region , began demonstrating for more freedom . That movement quickly morphed into a movement against President Bashar al-Assad , who was appointed president by Syria 's rubber-stamp parliament in 2000 after his father died . The largely amorphous group of anti-al-Assad rebels who have been trying to oust al-Assad , the Free Syrian Army , has had many casualties , but many innocent civilians have died . No area of the country seems safe . The opposition activist organization Local Coordination Committees of Syria ( LCCS ) said 136 people were killed in war-related violence across Syria on Tuesday , including 47 in Damascus and its suburbs , and 32 in Aleppo . CNN can not independently verify those figures . In mid-January , Aleppo University was the scene of horrific violence . One student described to CNN his dizzying attempt to help another after bombs exploded at the school , saying that he reached out his hand to help only to wind up grasping a fellow student 's severed hand . Every day looks the same in Syria . Al-Assad 's forces bombard neighborhoods . Body counts are recorded by anti-government rebels and activists . United Nations envoys -- two of them so far -- have tried to negotiate to end to the fighting . In late January , envoy Lakhdar Brahimi tried to persuade the U.N. Security Council to do something . `` Syria is being destroyed bit by bit and , in destroying Syria , the region is being pushed into a situation that is extremely bad and extremely important for the entire world , '' he said after meeting with the body in private . Throughout the war , there have been several instances in which observers have surmised that the bloodshed might be near an end . They 've been wrong every time . Al-Assad has made those predictions seem even more foolish when he 's given speeches in which he says all his government is doing is fighting back `` terrorists . '' There are Syrians who still very much support al-Assad , too . For example , in a recent CNN exclusive , CNN 's Frederik Pleitgen reported from Saidnaya , a predominantly Christian town outside Damascus that is standing firmly behind al-Assad . `` I do n't know why , but we love the president very much , '' said Housam Azar , a Saidnaya resident and organizer of the town 's militia . `` Sure , there have been mistakes , but we love the president a lot . ''
U.N. high commissioner for human rights said a month ago that death toll was high . Syria 's civil war has raged since March 2011 , partly inspired by Arab Spring protests . In January , U.N. envoy urged the United Nations Security Council to act .