Syrian civil society groups said that he Assad regime had launched a large-scale arrest campaign targeting medical workers in Homs without giving any clear reason for the arrests.
In a statement on Sunday, the groups said that Assad regime’s security forces raided medical centers and hospitals in Homs and the ‘returnees’ camp for Palestinian refugees near Homs. Many doctors, nurses and paramedics were rounded up and taken to an unknown location.
Rights activists said that the Assad regime has arrested civilians, dissident activists and medical personnel since the start of the revolution and subjected them to various methods of brutal torture.
The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria (AGPS) said that Assad’s security forces detained five staffers of Baisan hospital in the ‘returnees’ camp in Homs without giving any clear reasons. University students, women activists and mothers were also detained, some along with their children.
The London-based rights group pointed out the Assad regime has previously detained more than 187 residents from the camp, adding that the campaign came as part of the Assad regime’s continued targeting of Palestinian medical personnel in Syria and the medical infrastructure in many camps for Palestinian refugees.
The Syrian Coalition earlier condemned the Assad regime’s arbitrary detentions of civilians. It called on the international community to work on ensuring the release of detainees; referring the issue of detainees to the International Criminal Court; and investigating cases of torture and ill-treatment of civilians. It stressed the need to hold perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria to account. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
