Syria arrests more than 1,000 citizens as persecution and slaughter drags on

Syrian authorities have arrested more than 1,000 people and many more have been reported missing in the latest sweep aimed at crushing the uprising against President Bashar Assad, a human rights group said Tuesday.

Ammar Qurabi, who heads the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, said the 1,000 detentions were made since Saturday in house-to-house raids across the country.

"They are picking up people in an arbitrary manner," Qurabi told The Associated Press. In the southern city of Daraa, the epicenter of the protest movement, agents have been arresting men under 40, he said.

Assad is determined to crush the six-week-old revolt, which is the gravest challenge to his family's 40-year-old ruling dynasty.

Assad inherited power from his father in 2000, and has maintained close ties with Iran and Islamic militant groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

Rights groups say at least 545 Syrians have been killed since the uprising began in March in Daraa, spreading quickly across the nation of some 23 million people.

Syria blames the unrest on a foreign conspiracy and "terrorist groups" that it says have taken advantage of protests to stir up unrest and destabilize Syria. (read more)