The Vicious Machine

416 Syrian Detention Centers

Human Rights – Activist group Avaaz has released a report showing that the Syrian regime has a whopping 416 detention centers for political prisoners.

According to Avaaz, 69,000 people have seen the inside of one of these detention centers since the uprising began in March of last year. Of that number, 32,000 have seen release, though they have left with accounts of violent torture, like “electrocution, severe beatings, sleep deprivation, and the removal of nails, among others.” And this confinement has not been the exclusive domain of adults. Human Rights Watch has found evidence of children as young as 13 being detained, beaten, or even electrocuted.

The U.N.’s current estimate on the number dead from the government crackdown is as high as 5,400, with some groups claiming 6,000 have been killed for their opinions. With a system in place to keep this number rising, the Syrian bloodbath seems to continue without hesitation, despite foreign pressure for the killing to end.

Read more at the Huffington Post.