After a damning report on Syria's extensive network of underground detention centres that have been used to torture thousands during its 16-month-long uprising, there are renewed fears the conflict has slipped beyond diplomacy into a protracted ground war.

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, renewed her call for the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court as the serious abuses committed by both sides continued unabated.

''In my view, both government forces and armed opponents have been involved in actions harming civilians...and the evidence points to the commission of crimes against humanity,'' Ms Pillay said.

In its report released yesterday, Human Rights Watch also described what is happening in Syria as crimes against humanity, saying evidence from more than 200 interviews showed ''systematic patterns that...clearly point to a state policy of torture and ill-treatment''.

The group called on the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the international court and to adopt targeted sanctions against officials credibly implicated in the abuses.

In a detailed set of maps and command structures, the group has documented the exact location, agency, commander and type of torture used, using testimony corroborated by multiple witnesses, both victims and defectors who worked in the facilities.

Based on the evidence, the number of torture and detention centres is likely much higher than the 27 documented in the report, said the deputy director of its Middle East and North Africa division, Nadim Houry.

''We believe there is strong evidence that there is a state policy of torture and that it is widespread,'' Mr Houry said. ''These security services represent a shadow parallel state that must be held to account.''

Human Rights Watch estimates that since the uprising began, Syrian authorities have subjected tens of thousands of people to arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions, enforced disappearances, ill-treatment and torture using this extensive network of detention facilities and torture centres.

It is this ''legacy of systematised brutality'' that makes the possibility of a diplomatic outcome to this crisis so remote, said Richard Gowan, the associate director of the centre on international co-operation at New York University and a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

''The Syrian rebels have come to the conclusion that the only way they are going to finish this conflict favourably is through force rather than through diplomacy,'' Mr Gowan said.

It was clear, even early on in the uprising, that the regime of the President, Bashar al-Assad, was using torture as a central part of its response to the rebellion, he said.

''It is almost impossible to see where you can rebuild trust when this level of violence has been so deep and, in some ways, more toxic than the military campaigns.

''My increasing sense is that, tragically, this is a conflict that has to be fought out on the ground for some time before either side will really be prepared to listen to diplomacy.''

Meanwhile, the violence on the ground in Syria continued unabated, with at least 104 deaths reported on Monday alone, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights and local activists.

''All the evidence is that the support that the Saudis and Qataris and others have given to the rebels is paying off, and this is allowing the rebels to escalate their attacks, and it is inevitable that the army will counter escalate,'' Mr Gowan said.

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