(CNN) -- The Syrian regime has carried out a "systematic" series of abuses against protesters that could "qualify as crimes against humanity," and the United Nations must hold the government accountable, a leading humanitarian watchdog organization said Wednesday. Human Rights Watch makes these assertions in a report titled "'We've Never Seen Such Horror': Crimes against Humanity in Daraa." The 57-page document contains chilling detail from dozens of victims and witnesses to abuses in Daraa province, the southwestern Syrian powder keg where the anti-government protest movement began in mid-March before spreading across the country. The government reacted with a tough crackdown against protesters.
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The Human Rights Watch report focuses on Daraa province
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The report raises the issue of International Criminal Court involvement
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Hundreds have died across the country since mid-March
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In most cases, especially as demonstrations in @placeholder grew bigger, security forces opened fire without giving advance warning or making any effort to disperse the protesters by nonlethal means.
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Authorities put an information blockade into effect on @placeholder "to ensure that abuses were not exposed" and cell phones with damning videos were regularly confiscated during searches, it says.