accounts of officers giving similar orders to military units all over Syria , at different times . The orders were to stop the protests `` by all means necessary . '' In many cases , they said , officers gave orders to fire directly at protesters . The defectors told us that some soldiers reacted by throwing away their weapons and making a run for it . Others aimed above the protesters ' heads or to the ground . But that was dangerous . Eight defectors told us that they saw officers and intelligence agents killing soldiers who disobeyed orders . Others were detained and tortured . We are not publishing the defectors ' names and locations to protect them and their families . All these statements demolish President Bashar al-Assad 's claim that the bloodshed is the result of a few rogue commanders getting overly enthusiastic on crowd control . The defectors ' testimonies paint a horrific picture of a widespread and systematic crackdown against demonstrators : torture , arbitrary arrests and a `` shoot to kill '' policy that clearly amount to crimes against humanity . Al-Assad and his allies have sought to portray the protesters as ``
Moscow -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Just before Syrian security forces launched a large-scale military operation in the southern town of Daraa in the early hours of April 25 , the commander of the 35th Special Forces Regiment , Brig. Gen. Ramadan Mahmoud Ramadan , allegedly gathered his troops and explained their mission . `` Use heavy shooting . Nobody will ask you to explain , '' the brigadier said , according to `` Amjad , '' one of the many defectors I have interviewed in the last months . Amjad explained to me that normally the troops were supposed to save bullets , but this time it was different . `` The commander said to use as many bullets as we wanted . '' Over the next four days , security forces in Daraa killed around 200 people -LRB- Human Rights Watch documented the abuses at the time by interviewing victims and witnesses -RRB- and arrested thousands , subjecting many to beatings and torture . Since then , Amjad and more than 60 other defectors from Syria 's military and intelligence agencies have given us crucial information about who was responsible for abuses across the country . They provided consistent