Syria rejects U.N. estimate of 5,000 dead

Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations rejected the world body’s estimate that 5,000 people have died in an uprising against the government, calling the allegation “incredible.”

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Post date December 13, 2011

(CNN) New York – Ambassador Bashar Jaafari was responding to a briefing by U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who told the Security Council Monday the situation in Syria was “intolerable.”

Violence continued Tuesday, opposition sources said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces had opened fire “indiscriminately” in the villages of Maarat Masreen and Kafr Bahmoul near Idlib, killing 11 and wounding many.

The opposition Local Coordinating Committees of Syria also said there had been heavy gunfire in Idlib and violence in other cities.