LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The death toll for the month of August alone was also the highest in the civil war with 5,000 killed.

"If you do the math, it's quite an astonishing number," U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told journalists. "And it points to a significant escalation in refugee movement and people seeking asylum, and probably points to a very precarious and violent situation inside the country," she said.

Making matters worse, the new refugee figures only count refugees who are registered and those awaiting registration. Officials acknowledge the real number of Syrian refugees is more likely far above 200,000. Tens of thousands are believed to have not yet contacted authorities.

Beginning with chiefly peaceful protests at the start of last year's Arab Spring, President Bashar al-Assad's regime has fueled the nation into a civil war that some estimate has killed at least 23,000 people.

"Prisoners on both sides are subject to harsh treatment and, often, torture," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a speech before the U.N. General Assembly. "There have been alarming reports of summary executions on both sides."

Assad has told the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross this week that the group is welcome to operate in Syria - as long as it remains "neutral and independent," state media reported.

ICRC spokeswoman Rabab al-Rafai did not give further details about Assad's meeting with Peter Maurer in Damascus but said the Red Cross chief also met Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad and the head of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

"President Assad confirmed Syria welcomes the humanitarian operations that the organization is conducting on the ground in Syria as long as it works in a neutral and independent way," the state-run SANA news agency quoted Assad as saying.

According to the U.N., there are now more than 80,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey, where the borders remain open. There is a backlog of 8,000 Syrians waiting to be processed at the border. Jordan has more than 77,000 Syrian refugees, while Lebanon has more than 59,000 and Iraq has nearly 18,700, according to the agency.

Making the situation increasingly dire is the fact that the fighting has spread to Syria's two largest cities - the capital of Damascus and the commercial hub of Aleppo.

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