Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that over 76,000 people were killed in the Syrian conflict in 2014, making it the deadliest year in the country's four-year conflict. Of the dead, 17,790 were civilians, including 3,501 children.
Also, most of the violence reported is understood to be a direct impact of the emergence of Islamic militant groups such as the ISIS.
Even for Iraq, 2014 turned out to be the deadliest year since 2007, with over 15,000 reported deaths, reports BBC.
The statistics about Syrian deaths cannot be independently verified, but the Observatory attributes them to its sources across the country, BBC adds.
Other causes for the high death toll are US-led air strikes against Islamic State (IS) militants, conflicts between Syrian government soldiers and the rebels, and the sectarian violence in Iraq.
According to the United Nations, about 200,000 people have been killed ever since the Syrian conflict broke out in 2011. What began as peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad's government deteriorated gradually into a deadly conflict, pitting pro-government forces against numerous insurgent groups, Western-backed fighters, the al-Nusra Front and the ISIS. They are also now fighting against each other.
A worrying aspect is that the violence doesn't seem to subside anytime soon.
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad started the new year with a visit to front-line troops in the Damascus suburb of Jobar. He posted pictures on Twitter and Facebook of him with two soldiers near a battle tank and shaking hands with a third.
"If there was an area of joy which remained in Syria, it is thanks to the victories that you achieved in the face of terrorism," Dr Assad told the troops, according to his Twitter account.
