n Tuesday, Human Rights Watch published a report detailing what one researcher called a "network of torture chambers that the authorities are using to intimidate and punish people who dare to oppose the government." The report notes 27 detention centers across Syria where people are systemically tortured. Victims, some of them children, give accounts of being beaten, electrocuted, having nails pulled out with pliers, and other excruciating methods. Opposition activists say upwards of 223 people have been killed in the last two days, and report that a growing number of Assad's forces are defecting, with more than 258 people — among them members of government forces and their families — said to have fled Monday.