New York: The Syrian army and security forces are responsible for the majority of the serious rights abuses committed since March this year, according to a UN-commissioned report.
TheĀ reportĀ also mentions opposition tactics, with evidence captured soldiers have been tortured and killed.
The UN investigators say the conflict is becoming increasingly militarised.
The UN put the death toll at more than 9,000 since the uprising against President Assad began in March 2011.
In its latest report on Syria, covering March, April and part of May, the investigators for the UN Human Rights Council-appointed Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria documented cases of torture and summary execution committed by both the Syrian army and opposition forces.
Despite April’s ceasefire, and the deployment of UN monitors in Syria, the investigators say the conflict has become increasingly militarised.
“Most of the serious human rights violations documented by the Commission in this update were committed by the Syrian army and security services as part of military or search operations conducted in locations known for hosting defectors and/or armed persons, or perceived as supportive of anti-government armed groups,” their report said.
The report describes a clear pattern of serious violations, in which Syrian security forces blockade villages, and carry out house-to-house searches looking for opposition forces, says the BBC’s Imogen Foulkes in Geneva.
In some of these operations, the report says, entire families have been executed.
The investigators also say torture in detention, including of children, continues.
But the report has criticism of opposition tactics too – revealing evidence that captured Syrian soldiers have been tortured and killed, and that opposition forces are increasingly resorting to hostage-taking – in some cases to get their own prisoners released, in others, to extort money to buy weapons, our correspondent adds.
The Syrian government has refused the team entry to Syria, but the investigators carried out interviews in neighbouring countries with over 200 eyewitnesses to the conflict.
The Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria was established by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate abuses in Syria.
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