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Nearly 18,000 people have died in government prisons in Syria since the beginning of the uprising in 2011, according to Amnesty International.

A new report by the charity, based on interviews with 65 “torture survivors”, details systematic use of rape and beatings by prison guards. Former detainees described so-called welcome parties – ritual beatings using metal bars and electric cables.

The Syrian government has repeatedly denied such allegations.

The report estimates that 17,723 people died in custody across Syria between March 2011, when the uprising against President Bashar Assad began, and December 2015 – equivalent to about 10 people each day or more than 300 a month.

According to the report, new detainees are subjected to “security checks” that often involve women being sexually assaulted by male guards.

‘How I Was Tortured In A Syrian Jail’

“They treated us like animals. They wanted people to be as inhuman as possible,” said Samer, a lawyer from Hama who was among those interviewed. “I saw the blood, it was like a river… I never imagined humanity would reach such a low level.”

Another inmate, Ziad (not his real name), described how seven people died in one day after the ventilation stopped working at an intelligence agency detention centre. “They began to kick us to see who was alive and who wasn’t,” Ziad said.

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The conviction of radical cleric Anjem Choudary shows there is “room for improvement” in UK counter-terrorism legislation, a legal expert has said.

David Anderson QC said the law had “barely touched” Choudary for 20 years, before he was found guilty of inviting support for so-called Islamic State.

The UK must establish whether any “impediments” were making it harder to get convictions, Mr Anderson added. Choudary, 49, was arrested in 2014 and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.

Counter-terrorism chiefs have spent almost 20 years trying to bring him to trial, blaming him, and the proscribed organisations which he helped to run, for radicalising young men and women. The father-of-five – who was arrested in 2014 after pledging allegiance to IS – was convicted alongside confidant Mohammed Mizanur Rahman. Both men were charged with one offence of inviting support for IS – which is contrary to section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000 – between 29 June 2014 and 6 March 2015. The verdict on the two defendants was delivered on 28 July, but was only reported on Tuesday following the conclusion of a separate trial at the Old Bailey.

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An air strike has hit a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in northern Yemen, killing at least 11 people, the medical charity says.

Another 19 people were injured in the attack in Abs, in Hajjah province, believed to have been carried out by the Saudi-led coalition which is backing Yemen’s government in its fight against Houthi rebels. The coalition has not yet commented. Local people said the hit follows days of air raids in the area.

The first rescue workers to arrive at the scene had to move cautiously, fearing that the circling planes might attack again. The blast immediately killed nine people, including an MSF staff member, MSF Yemen tweeted. Two more patients died while they were being transferred to another hospital, it added.

The conflict in Yemen that began in 2015 has left more than 6,400 people dead, half of them civilians, and displaced 2.5 million others, according to the UN.

MSF said more than 4,600 patients had been treated at the Abs hospital since MSF began supporting it in July 2015. A spokesman for the United Nations said the organisation was aware of the latest reports from Yemen and was trying to gather some details.

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The US says it has sent 15 Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United Arab Emirates – the largest single transfer during President Barack Obama’s administration.

The Pentagon says the transfer of 12 Yemeni nationals and three Afghans brings the total number of prisoners down to 61 at the US facility in Cuba. The released inmates had been held without charge, some for over 14 years.

President Obama wants to close the prison before he leaves office.

The jail was opened by former US President George W Bush in January 2002 to accommodate foreign terror suspects after the 11 September attacks in 2001 and the subsequent US-led invasion of Afghanistan. Some 779 men have been brought there since it opened.

Why Does Obama Want To Close It?

The president says its existence harms partnerships with countries whose help the US needs in fighting terrorism. He says Guantanamo Bay is contrary to US values, undermining the nation’s standing in the world – a standing based on support for the rule of law. Most inmates there have not been charged and, in February, Mr Obama lamented that “not a single verdict has been reached” on those there that have. He also believes the facility fuels the recruitment of jihadists. It’s also expensive to run – $445m (£345m) annually.

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An Iranian dual national has been arrested on suspicion of spying for the British intelligence services, Iran’s state news agency reports.

Irna quoted Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari-Dowlatabadi as saying the suspect had “been active in the economic field, related to Iran”. Mr Jafari-Dowlatabadi did not name the individual or give their second nationality. There was no immediate comment from the UK Foreign Office.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have detained at least six other dual nationals since last year and accused them of security-related offences. They include the British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was arrested at Tehran’s airport in April as she tried to return to the UK after a holiday with her two-year-old daughter, Gabriella. Her husband Richard Ratcliffe told the BBC on Monday that the allegation that she was involved in trying to overthrow the regime in Iran was “absurd”.

Mr Jafari-Dowlatabadi announced last month that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe faced trial by a Revolutionary Court – a closed-door tribunal which handles security-related cases – along with US-Iranian businessman Siamak Namazi, Canadian-Iranian academic Homa Hoodfar and Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese permanent resident of the US.

Iran does not recognise dual nationality, which prevents relevant foreign diplomats gaining access to citizens being detained.