A global campaigning organization says that almost 3,000 people have gone missing in Syria sincethe start of the uprising against President Bashar Assad more than four months ago.
A survey by the online activist group Avaaz.org estimates that one person is disappearing in Syria every hour. The group released the survey results in a statement on Thursday.
It says it has identified 2,918 Syrians arrested by security forces whose whereabouts are now unknown.
- Activists say more than 1,600 people have been killed, most of them unarmed protesters.
Although the uprising began in mid-March with calls for reform, the steadily climbing death toll and slow pace of reform has enraged the protest movement now calling for Assad's ouster.