( CNN ) -- The U.S. State Department got personal in its complaints against the Syrian government Thursday , accusing it of a `` targeted , brutal attack '' on a popular Syrian political cartoonist , Ali Farzat . Shortly after a cartoon by Farzat depicting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hitching a ride with outgoing Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi began circulating in Syria , Farzat was reportedly kidnapped by masked men , beaten and thrown unconscious from a van onto a road in Damascus . `` The ( al-Assad ) regime 's thugs focused their attention on ( Farzat 's ) hands , beating them furiously and breaking one of them -- a clear message that he should stop drawing , '' State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland wrote in an official statement . The statement went on to name five other `` moderate activists '' that it said have been jailed for speaking out against the al-Assad regime . `` While making empty promises about dialogue with the Syrian people , the Assad regime continues to carry out brutal attacks against peaceful Syrians trying to exercise their universal right to free expression . We demand that the Assad regime immediately stop its campaign of terror through torture , illegal imprisonment , and murder , '' Nuland 's statement continued . Passers-by reportedly found the beaten 60-year-old cartoonist and took him to a hospital . A photograph circulating Thursday on the internet showed Farzat with a bandage over his right eye , his face badly bruised , and heavy bandages wrapped around both hands . Nuland 's statement described Farzat as `` the most popular political cartoonist in the country , '' and reaction in Syria was swift to the attack on a man described on a website featuring his cartoons as having `` a pen of Damascus steel . '' In a demonstration of solidarity , a number of Syrians on Facebook changed their profile pictures to that of the bruised and bloodied satirist . Farzat is known for his caricatures lampooning figures such as Saddam Hussein , who threatened him with death before banning his work in Iraq , and Gadhafi of Libya , where his work is also banned .
Ali Farzat is a popular Syrian political cartoonist . He was abducted and beaten after a cartoon depicting Syria 's Bashar al-Assad . Score: 6 a `` targeted , brutal attack '' Farzat 's supporters circulated a photo of the hospitalized cartoonist on the internet .