This image made from amateur video and released by Shaam News Network Tuesday, March 13, 2012, purports to show a Syrian rebel atop of a Syrian military tank in Khan Sheikhoun, Syria. Fresh from a monthlong... (Associated Press) 
 
 This image made from amateur video and released by Shaam News Network Tuesday, March 13, 2012, purports to show a Syrian rebel atop of a Syrian military tank in Khan Sheikhoun, Syria. Fresh from a monthlong... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Saturday, March 10, 2012 photo, Aida, 32, reacts as she recovers from severe injuries after the Syrian Army shelled her house in Idlib north Syria, Saturday, March 10, 2012. Aida's husband and... (Associated Press) 
 
 This image made from amateur video and released by Shaam News Network Tuesday, March 13, 2012, purports to Syrians carrying the coffin of a man killed by Syrian government forces during his funeral in... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Saturday, March 10, 2012 photo, Aida cries as she recovers from severe injuries after the Syrian Army shelled her house in Idlib, north Syria. Aida's husband and two of her children were killed... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Sunday, March 11, 2012 photo, residents gather around the body of Mohammed Halak, killed during fighting between Free Syrian Army fighters and the Syrian Army in Idlib, north Syria. Scores of... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Sunday, March 11, 2012 photo, the wife of Mohammed Halak slumps in a chair next to his body as she mourns the death of her husband, killed during fighting between Free Syrian Army fighters and... (Associated Press) 
 
 This image made from amateur video and released by Shaam News Network Tuesday, March 13, 2012, purports to show road barriers built to prevent Bashar Assad's gangs from entering villages in Latakia, Syria.... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this Sunday, March 11, 2012 photo, Syrian rebels take position during clashes with government forces in Idlib, north Syria. "Torture and other ill-treatment in Syria form part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population, carried out in an organized manner and as part of state policy and therefore amount to crimes against humanity," it said. But given the large number of people who have been detained, it says the number of those killed is likely much higher. Panos Moumtzis, the UNHCR's coordinator for Syria said 30,000 people have already fled to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan and "on a daily basis hundreds of people are still crossing into neighboring countries."
– Russia has rejected calls to stop arming and training Bashar al-Assad's regime, despite evidence that its weapons are being used against civilians. "Russia enjoys good and strong military technical co-operation with Syria, and we see no reason today to reconsider it," Russia's deputy defense minister said yesterday, insisting that existing contracts will be honored. The two countries have been closely linked for decades and Syria hosts Russia's only naval base outside the former Soviet Union, the Independent notes. The evidence is mounting as to how brutal Syria's crackdown on the year-old uprising has been: In a report out today, Amnesty International found that Assad's regime regularly tortures prisoners using sticks, rifle butts, cords, and sexual assault, reports the AP. In addition to the 7,500 estimated killed so far, the crackdown continues to claim dozens of lives daily and human rights groups say land mines have been planted along the routes refugees are using to flee the violence. Assad's forces have now recaptured most of Idlib, a rebel stronghold near the border with Turkey that had been held by hundreds of military defectors, the AP reports.