31 types of torture - including ‘crucifixion’-type beatings, electric shocks, use of pincers on flesh, male rape with broken bottle or metal skewer

People caught up in the massive wave of arrests in the wake of the Syrian uprising have been thrust into a nightmarish world of systemic torture, a new report by Amnesty International says today (14 March).

The scale of torture and other ill-treatment in Syria has risen to a level not witnessed for years and is reminiscent of the dark era of the 1980s and 1990s, said Amnesty.

Eighteen-year-old “Karim”, a student from al-Taybeh in Dera’a governorate, told Amnesty that his interrogators used pincers to remove flesh from his legs when he was being held at an Air Force Intelligence branch in Dera’a in December 2011.