Nearly 13,000 Syrians tortured to death by Assad regime, 20,000 vanished since beginning of war
The figures include 108 children, the youngest of whom was merely 12 years old.
By JPOST.COM STAFFZaatari refugee camp with Syria in the distance.(photo credit: MICHAEL WILNER)
According to figures provided by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights to AFP, 12,751 Syrians have been tortured to death by the Assad regime since the beginning of the country's bloody civil war in March of 2011.The figures issued by the Britain based monitor, which include 108 children, the youngest of whom was merely 12 years old, also include rebels, political activists, protesters and other forms of dissidents who have made up the nearly 200,000 people detained by the regime in the last four years.The most feared torturers reportedly came from the military and security establishment, with particular emphasis on the Syrian Air-force's Intelligence service and the Damascus' Intelligence services. Those arrested were taken to their detainment centers where they were subjected to techniques ranging from starvation to psychological abuse. Victims were also often hung by their wrists and beating them with rods, while in other cases rape and sexual abuse was used instead or in addition.The head of the monitor, Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that some 20,000 Syrians had been 'disappeared' after their arrest and that their fates were covered up.“Some of the families of those killed under torture were forced to sign statements that their loved ones had been killed by rebel groups,” Rahman said.Since the beginning of the war, more than 210,000 people have been killed, with millions more displaced either inside Syria or beyond its borders.
