Defected Syrian soldiers identified 74 of their senior officers and commanders responsible for the killing of protesters said Human Rights Watch in a report released on Thursday.

The report, ‘By All Means Necessary!’: Individual and Command Responsibility for Crimes against Humanity in Syria, has compiled evidence from over 60 interviews with defectors, where former soldiers state they were ordered to "shoot to kill" and curtail the protests "by all means necessary".

One former soldier said,

"Our orders were to make the demonstrators retreat by all possible means, including by shooting at them. It was a broad order that shooting was allowed. When officers were present, they would decide when and whom to shoot."

"If somebody carried a microphone or a sign, or if demonstrators refused to retreat, we would shoot. We were ordered to fire directly at protesters many times. We had Kalashnikovs and machine guns, and there were snipers on the roofs."

One of the report's authors and associate director for emergencies at Human Rights Watch, Anna Neistat said,

“Defectors gave us names, ranks, and positions of those who gave the orders to shoot and kill, and each and every official named in this report, up to the very highest levels of the Syrian government, should answer for their crimes against the Syrian people,”

Calling on the UN Security Council to ensure accountability by referring Syria to the ICC, Neisat added,

“Try as he may to distance himself from responsibility for his government’s relentless brutality, President Assad’s claim that he did not actually order the crackdown does not absolve him of criminal responsibility,”

“As the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, he must have known about the abuses – if not from his subordinates, then from UN reports and the reports Human Rights Watch sent him.”