Human Rights Group Finds Evidence of Torture in Syrian Prisons

It's really not a pleasant place

Rights activists visiting abandoned government prisons in the first Syrian city to come under rebel control have found torture devices and other evidence that detainees were abused there, Human Rights Watch said in a report Friday.

Raqqa, in eastern Syria, was overrun in late February by rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad. The rebels facilitated the New York-based group's access to facilities that had belonged to a government security agency and military intelligence in late April.

In Russia, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov defended his country's continuing arms shipments to Syria, saying they violate no international norms. His statement followed media reports claiming that Russia had recently delivered an advanced version of Yakhont anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria.