'Hundreds killed' in Syria protest during Ramadan

A rights group said on Wednesday that a total of 473 people were killed during protests in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in Syria.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the death toll comprised to 360 civilians and 113 members of the security forces and the army.
The civilians comprised of 25 people aged under 18, 14 women and 28 who died in detention or under torture. Almost daily protests has taken place against the regime of  President Bashar al-Assad, since mid-March, in the face of  crackdown which according to the UN has resulted in the death of at least 2,200 people.
The observatory said that the security forces had returned the bodies of 13 people to their families, at least five of whom were still alive when they were arrested in early August.
Amnesty international said in a seperate report that it had heard of 88 deaths in the custody between April 1 and August 15, including 10 children aged between 13 and 18.
Amnesty added that there is no evidence that any kind of torture was caused or conributed to the deaths, citing signs of violent burn marks, beatings and cuts.
Some had been mutilated before or after death in particularly grotesque  ways apparently intended to strike terror into the families to whom their corpses were returned.
Reported by  AR

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