Thousands tortured to death by Syrian regime: Watchdog

By Mohamed Sheikh Yusuf

ISTANBUL

More than 12,000 people have been tortured to death by the Syrian regime since 2011, according to a human rights group.

In a Sunday statement, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that 12,679 people died of torture from March 2011 to June 2016.

“Around 12,596 people were killed by government forces, including 163 children and 53 women,” said the statement, issued to mark the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

According to the London-based watchdog, some 18 people were killed by PYD, the Syrian affiliate of terrorist PKK organization.

“Some 29 people were also killed by Daesh terrorist group, including a child and 13 women,” the statement said.

The rights group also cited that 19 people were also killed by Syrian opposition groups and 15 others by al-Nusra Front.

“The Syrian regime is responsible for 99 percent of deaths due to torture at detention centers,” the statement added.

SNHR director Fadl Abdel-Ghani said his group could not document any case of detention with a legal warrant.

“The regime has committed crimes against humanity,” he said, citing sexual assault, killing and involuntary disappearance as some of the practices by the Syrian regime.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the "Arab Spring" uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity and disproportionate force.

Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed -- and more than 10 million displaced -- throughout the war-battered country, according to the UN.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, an NGO, however, has put the death toll from the five-year conflict at as high as 470,000.

*Anadolu Agency Correspondent Ali Abo Rezeg contributed to this report from Ankara.