GENEVA, Switzerland, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- A U.N. human rights group said it was "extremely alarmed" by the brutality in Syria following reports an 18-year-old woman died while in custody.
Damascus is facing increased isolation in the international community because of ongoing bloodshed in the country. Syrian officials blame terrorist elements for much of the violence. U.N. officials put the death toll since mid-March at around 3,000, though Syrian human rights groups said recently that number is a conservative estimate.
Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement, said the events in Syria were appalling.
"We are extremely alarmed by ongoing reports of the increasingly brutal crackdown by Syrian authorities against protesters in Syria," she said.
Shamdasani said the OHCHR received reports that the mutilated body of 18-year-old Zeinab al-Hosni was discovered by her family last week. She went missing in late July and was allegedly subjected to torture at the hands of Syrian security forces.
This week, Kang Kyung-wha, deputy high commissioner for human rights, told the U.N. Human Rights Council that its mission uncovered "widespread or systematic" human rights violations had occurred in Syria.
She said a fact-finding mission on Syria uncovered through "credible, corroborated and consistent accounts" that snipers shot bystanders helping the wounded and soldiers were torturing detainees, including children. If soldiers refused orders to shoot, they were executed by their officers.
Kang said many of the abuses in Syria amount to crimes against humanity.
