Syrian Filmmaker Missing, Lawyer Held

A Syrian filmmaker has gone missing and is believed abducted by the security services, while a lawyer is among a number of women rounded up in Damascus, a rights groups said on Saturday.

Film director Nidal Hassan went missing on Thursday, with his associates believing he has been "abducted by the security services due to his support" of anti-government protests, the Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights said in a statement.

It added that Syria's security services had in the past two days arrested several women in Damascus, among them 28-year-old lawyer Asma Sassa.

The League said Sassa was arrested at the Palace of Justice "by the security services who took her to an unknown place."

It added that at least 114 lawyers have been detained in a massive security crackdown since mid-March on political dissent and anti-government protests.

The League said security services had also arrested on Friday four young women in Damascus it said were "trying to rescue a demonstrator being violently beaten by the shabiha" -- a reference to militiamen loyal to the regime.

The United Nations estimates that more than 3,000 people have been killed in the brutal crackdown, which has been widely condemned internationally, amid calls including from Washington for President Bashar Assad to step down.

An Arab League plan which Syria signed on to earlier in the week calls for an end to violence, the release of those detained, the withdrawal of the army from urban areas and free movement for observers and the media, as well as talks between the regime and opposition.

Violence has continued, however, with at least another 50 people killed since the peace deal was agreed on Wednesday.