It said the killings were authorized by senior officials, including deputies of President Bashar Assad. Amnesty said its findings are based on interviews with 31 former detainees and more than 50 officials, including prison guards and judges. In a report released last year, the group documented over 17,000 deaths from torture and abuse in detention facilities across Syria. Syrian officials rarely comment on widespread allegations of torture in the country's notorious prisons, but they have denied accusations of mass killings. Amnesty called on the Syrian government to cease extrajudicial killings and torture in Saydnaya, one of the country's largest prisons.

Source: Fox News February 07, 2017 00:11 UTC