Syrian forces beat up political cartoonist Ali Ferzat

Ferzat, who had become increasingly critical of Bashar al-Assad's regime, found bleeding at side of Damascus road

Syrian cartoonist Ali Ferzat, at his Damascus gallery.

Syrian security forces have beaten up a prominent Syrian political cartoonist and left him bleeding on the side of a road, in the latest episode of a campaign to quash dissent against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Ali Ferzat, 60, is one of Syria's most famous cultural figures, and his drawings and cartoons have pushed at the boundaries of freedom of expression in Syria.

Working from a gallery in central Damascus, Ferzat has long criticised the bureaucracy and corruption of the regime and since March has turned to depicting the uprising.

In the early hours of Thursday, masked men seized Ferzat on a Damascus street and forced him in to a van. He was held for several hours and beaten before being dumped, bleeding, on the capital's Airport Road where he was found by passersby, activists said.

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