Hundreds of Thousands of Syrians in Mass Graves, Investigators Say

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

DAMASCUS (Worthy News) – Investigators revealed Tuesday that hundreds of thousands of Syrians who were “tortured to death by Bashar al-Assad’s regime” are believed to be burried in mass graves, including near Syria’s capital, Damascus.

Since the Syrian president fled to Russia this month, more details are emerging about the alleged atrocities committed by Assad and his inner circle against perceived opponents.

In one mass grave site in the city of Qutayfah, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) from Damascus, trenches are marked 6-7 meters (19-23 feet) deep, 3-4 meters wide, and 50-150 meters long.

Here alone, hundreds of thousands of bodies of people could be buried in a mass grave, according to Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the US-based Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), an anti-Assad advocacy group.

After years of work to expose mass graves, Moustafa told media that he’s finally been able to visit the suspected site after Assad’s fall.

Al-Qutayfah, located about an hour northeast of Damascus, had just under 27,000 residents during the last census in 2004.

GRIM SECRET

These residents harbored a grim secret: Al-Qutayfah is the site of one of the mass graves where opponents of the Assad regime were buried.

He said the grave contains a minimum of 100,000 bodies.

A Worthy News estimate suggested the actual figure could be higher.

Gravediggers who worked at the site reportedly said that “four tractor-trailer trucks, each carrying over 150 bodies in each, came twice a week from 2012 until 2018.”

That would amount to hundreds of thousands of bodies. “The 100,000 is a very conservative estimate,” Moustafa said. “It’s an extremely low, almost unfairly conservative figure.”

And Al-Qutayfah is not the only site. Moustafa and his organization have identified four additional locations that are also believed to be mass graves.

MORE RESEARCH

Worthy News learned these sites were uncovered using satellite imagery and other investigative methods.

Further research is required to determine how many victims are buried there, according to investigators.

The investigation at Al-Qutayfah has already begun. Many of the remains unearthed so far showed clear signs of torture, Moustafa said.

“Imagine pulling the fingernails from the hands of babies, imagine drilling into someone’s kneecap, imagine cutting open an elderly person and pouring salt into their wounds. This is how these people were killed. It’s a slaughterhouse, a killing machine.”

In recent days, Syrians have been seen digging with their bare hands, desperately searching for the remains of their loved ones as well as answers for one of the darkest chapters in their nation’s recent history.

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