Syria has reportedly seen the deadliest 48-hour period of its three-year civil war. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says more than 700 people were killed on Thursday and Friday, more than those killed in the chemical attack on Ghouta nearly one year ago. Most of last week’s dead were killed in heavy clashes between government forces and rebel fighters at the Shaar gas field in central Syria. The Observatory puts the overall death toll since March 2011 at 170,000, more than one-third civilians. More than 2.8 million people have been displaced.