Reuters on Wednesday conveyed statements from the UK-based Observatory for Human Rights assessing – per the outlet – that ‘more Syrians have been killed in the three weeks since peace talks began than at any other time in the civil war,’ amid an ongoing offensive that has seen Hezbollah-backed Syrian troops consolidating control over critical border towns.

More than 230 people have been killed every day in Syria since January 22, when international mediators brought President Bashar al-Assad’s government and its opponents together, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. That is more than in any other three weeks since the war began in 2011.

The United Nations says more than 130,000 Syrians have been killed in nearly three years of fighting. Totaling at least 4,959, the three-week death toll compiled by the Observatory included 515 women and children. The group estimated about a third of all the dead were civilians. “This is the highest average we have had,” said Rami Abdelrahman of the Observatory as the group urged a suspension of negotiations at Geneva if there was no immediate ceasefire.

Reports issued earlier this week indicate that renewed negotiations stumbled out of the gate. Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, recently launched a broadside at the Obama administration over its Syria policy, accusing the White House of crafting its Syria policy in a way that has “less to do with Syria than with protecting the American president’s pursuit of detente with Tehran.” Secretary of State John Kerry has also reportedly acknowledged that the administration’s Syria policy has failed.

[Photo: SyriaFreedom / Flickr]