BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) – An international human rights watchdog is urging Syrian authorities to order an independent investigation into the shooting of inmates by security troops during a prison riot earlier this month.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has also called on authorities to make public the names of those killed or injured in the riot which broke out July 5. The group confirms in a statement Tuesday that at least nine inmates and one policeman were killed, while some Syrian human rights organizations have reported that as many as 25 may have been killed.
Syrian authorities have not disclosed any details or casualty figures of the riot at Saidnaya prison in a Damascus suburb. They say the rioting was short-lived and triggered by a group of extremists who had carried out terrorist attacks in Syria and Iraq.