The Syrian government has turned hospitals into "instruments of repression" in its drive to crush opposition, Amnesty International has said. 
 
 Wounded patients in at least four government-run hospitals have been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including by medical staff, the human rights group said in a report. 
 
 Other hospital workers suspected of treating protesters and others injured during demonstrations have themselves faced arrest and torture, it added. 
 
 "It is deeply alarming that the Syrian authorities seem to have given the security forces a free rein in hospitals, and that in many cases hospital staff appear to have taken part in torture and ill treatment of the very people they are supposed to care for," said Cilina Nasser, an Amnesty researcher. 
 
 Syria has intensified a crackdown on protests and an armed insurgency despite western condemnation. The UN says the crackdown has killed 3,000 people. 
 
 Syrian authorities say they are fighting armed terrorist groups in the central city of Homs who have killed civilians, security forces and prominent figures. 
 
 Amnesty said patients had been assaulted by medical staff, health workers and security personnel in the national hospitals in Homs, the coastal city of Banias and the border town of Tel Kelakh, and at the military hospital in Homs. 
 
 One doctor at Homs military hospital told Amnesty that he had seen four doctors and more than 20 nurses abusing patients. 
 
 A man was delivered unconscious to the national hospital in Tel Kelakh on 22 August after being beaten by security forces, the report said. "There were around seven or eight security men, some carrying rifles, and nurses wearing white robes crowded around him. He opened his eyes and said: 'Where am I?' They all suddenly jumped on him and started beating him and hitting him," according to a witness in the emergency room. 
 
 Patients have also been removed from hospitals. On 7 September, security forces looking for an alleged armed field commander opposed to the government raided al-Birr wa al-Khadamat hospital in Homs, the report said. When they did not find him, they arrested 18 wounded people, it said. 
 
 Afraid of the consequences of going to a government hospital, many people have chosen to seek treatment either at private hospitals or at poorly equipped makeshift field hospitals, Amnesty said. ||||| BEIJING — China said Tuesday that it was sending an envoy to Syria after blocking a U.N. resolution earlier this month that threatened sanctions, and reiterated that it wants a political solution to the country's ongoing crisis. 
 
 Wu Sike, China's special envoy on the Middle East, will visit Syria and Egypt from Wednesday through Sunday, the Foreign Ministry said. 
 
 The uprising in Syria has proven remarkably resilient even though the government has tried relentlessly to crush the revolt. The United Nations says more than 3,000 people have been killed in the government crackdown on the protests, and international pressure has been building for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down. 
 
 Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Tuesday that Beijing wants all parties in Syria to resolve the crisis peacefully. 
 
 "We believe the Syrian government should deliver on its reform pledges, respond to the people's appeals and that all parties should, in a constructive manner, actively participate in the political process," Jiang said in a regular briefing. 
 
 China and Russia vetoed the already watered-down Security Council resolution criticizing the Syrian government for suppressing protests because they objected to language that left open the possibility of sanctions against Syria. 
 
 The opposition movement driving Syria's 7-month-old uprising has mostly focused on peaceful demonstrations, although recently there have been reports of protesters taking up arms to defend themselves against military attacks. There have also been increasing reports of defections from the military, highlighting a trend that has raised fears that Syria may be sliding toward civil war. 
 
 The United States has pulled its ambassador out of Syria, arguing that his support for anti-Assad activists put him in grave danger. Syria responded quickly Monday, ordering home its envoy from Washington. 
 
 China and Russia have also been urging the chief U.N. nuclear inspector to scrap or delay U.S.-backed plans to reveal intelligence on Iran's alleged nuclear arms experiments, in a bluntly worded confidential document obtained Monday by The Associated Press. 
 
 Asked about the Chinese-Russian diplomatic note to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano, Jiang would only say that China believes in resolving the dispute through dialogue. 
 
 "We hope the IAEA can uphold the just and objective position, bring into full play their professional advantage, engage in contact and interaction with Iran and play a constructive role for solving the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomatic means," Jiang said. 
 
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 Associated Press writer George Jahn contributed to this report from Vienna. 
 
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 Follow Gillian Wong on Twitter at http://twitter.com/gillianwong
– Wounded Syrian protesters would be well-advised to avoid state-run hospitals—because security forces and medical staff are torturing people within them, Amnesty International alleges in a new report. “Syrian authorities seem to have given the security forces a free rein in hospitals,” one Amnesty researcher said, according to the Guardian. “In many cases hospital staff appear to have taken part in the torture and ill treatment of the very people they are supposed to care for.” Those hospital workers who have actually treated protesters have themselves been arrested and tortured. These abuses are taking place in at least four hospitals; the report identifies two in Homs, one in Banias, and one in Tel Kelakh. One witness in the Tel Kelakh emergency room says he saw a man wheeled in surrounded by seven or eight security personnel and nurses. “He opened his eyes and said, ‘Where am I?’ They all suddenly jumped on him and started beating him,” he recalls. (China, meanwhile, is sending an envoy to Syria this week.)