Amnesty International: Syrian authorities killed thousands in mass hangings

The Syrian government has secretly executed as many as 13,000 people in mass hangings at a prison since the beginning of an uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Amnesty International reported Tuesday. Up to 50 people were killed every week at Saydnaya Prison north of Damascus in what the report called a "calculated campaign of extrajudicial execution." United Nations investigators determined a year ago that the Assad government had been "exterminating" thousands of civilian detainees in the country's civil war, and in August, Amnesty International said at least 17,732 detainees at government facilities had died after being tortured. The Syrian government rarely comments on torture allegations but has denied reports of massacres in the past.

Source: USA Today