The Syrian authorities on Sunday blamed inmates for provoking a riot in a prison for political detainees that human rights groups said left at least 25 people dead. "Prisoners sentenced for crimes of terrorism and extremism caused trouble... in the Saydnaya prison. They attacked their comrades during a prison inspection," the official SANA news agency said.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least 25 people were killed after military police fired live bullets at Islamist inmates when the rioting erupted on Saturday. SANA made no mention of any casualties in its report on the incident at the prison, one of the largest in Syria, that houses mainly Islamist political prisoners.
"A security force unit immediately took action to remedy the situation and restore calm in the prison," it said. One inmate had told the BBC's Arabic service that the guards had treated the prisoners roughly during the raid.
"They shackled our hands behind us, confiscated our clothes and possessions and beat us. And they insulted the Koran, they trod on the Koran," he said. Saydnaya prison was built in 1987 to accommodate 5,000 inmates but can take up to 10,000, according to the Syrian Human Rights Committee.
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