Syria’s military launched new offensives around the country Wednesday, January 2, as the U.N. dramatically increased its fatality list for the Syrian conflict, saying some 60,000 had been killed there since March 2011, The Wall Street Journal reported. The U.N.’s updated Syrian death toll is well above the 45,000 mark that many Syrian antigovernment activist groups have cited at this point in the 22-month conflict. Meanwhile, new regime attacks in and around Homs and Hama—the country’s third- and fourth-largest cities, respectively—expanded the battleground for rebel and regime forces. That represents a shift from the past half-year, a period in which Syria’s two biggest cities, Aleppo and Damascus, have been the focus of fighting. Lately, rebel fighters have begun to complain they are running out of ammunition, and in several locations regime forces appear to have successfully beaten back rebels.