Syria has been plagued with violence over the past year and a half, and human rights groups have blamed both the government and anti-government groups for the resulting deaths. Last week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that Syrian authorities have been maintaining secret detention facilities [JURIST report] to hold and torture prisoners. In June, a UN commission stated that Syrian forces "may have been responsible" for the killing of more than 100 civilians [JURIST report] in Al-Houla in May. Al-Assad, however, said earlier in June that the government had nothing to do with it [JURIST report] and that "not even monsters" would carry out those attacks. In April the UN Security Council approved a resolution [JURIST report] to send 300 unarmed soldiers and other humanitarian aid to supervise the implementation of a peace plan. This came after HRW released a report [JURIST report] stating that Syrian security forces had killed more than 100 civilians and opposition fighters in recent attacks. In March, HRW also reported on and linked to videos of Syrian forces rounding up civilians [JURIST report], including women and children, and forcing them to walk in front of soldiers and tanks during troop movements and attacks so that opposition fighters would not shoot at them.