Kids Among 88 Tortured and Killed in Syrian Prisons

At least 88 people have been tortured and killed in Syrian detention centers over the past five months, including 10 children, according to a new report from Amnesty International. Victims were burned, beaten, and electrocuted, among other abuses, the report alleges. “These deaths behind bars are reaching massive proportions,” Neil Sammonds, the group’s researcher in Syria, tells the BBC.

Many of these abuses have been documented on video, the group adds. Most occurred near the protest hotbeds in Homs and Daraa, but deaths were reported in other places as well. Amnesty has the names of 3,000 people in detention, but there are said to be 12,000 to 15,000 detained overall. “We know that torture has been widespread over many years,” Sammonds says. “It has gotten much worse.” The group says this level of torture hasn’t been seen in Syria since the 1980s. (More Syria stories.)