More than 7,000 people were arbitrarily detained across war-torn Syria in 2018, mostly by the Bashar Assad regime, a human rights group said yesterday.

In a statement, the London-based Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said 7,706 people had been detained countrywide, including 504 children and 699 women.

Of the 5,607 detained by the regime, 355 were children and 596 women.

Most of the individuals were detained in regime-held areas, the SNHR said.

According to the statement, 965 people, including 83 children and 74 women, were detained by the PKK's Syrian affiliate, the People's Protection Units (YPG).

The SNHR went on to note that at least 338 people, including 13 children and 338 women, had been detained by the Daesh terrorist group.

The nongovernmental organization (NGO) estimated the number of people currently held in regime prisons at no less than 500,000.

Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected severity.