‘Tortured to death’: 100,000 bodies found in Syrian mass grave, the largest uncovered since Stalin era

A grave containing the bodies of at least 100,000 people killed under President Bashar al-Assad’s rule has been discovered in Syria.

A mass grave containing the bodies of at least 100,000 people killed under the brutal rule of ousted President Bashar al-Assad has been discovered in Syria.

The grave, believed to be one of the largest in modern history, was discovered in al-Qutayfah, about 40km north of the capital of Damascus, said Mouaz Moustafa, the executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF).

The site contains multiple trenches estimated to be about 19 to 23 feet deep and more than 10 feet wide.

“One hundred thousand is the most conservative estimate,” Moustafa told Reuters of the amount of bodies he believed were buried at the site.

“It’s a very, very extremely, almost unfairly conservative estimate.”

People search for human remains at a trench believed to be used as a mass grave on the outskirts of Damascus on December 16. Picture: Aris Messinis/AFP

Moustafa said the site was just one of eight mass graves created by Assad’s fallen government.

The ousted leader fled Syria to Moscow last week after a lightning offensive by Islamist-led rebels seized key cities, ending over 50 years of his family’s rule.

Moustafa said the grave was likely the outcome of the work entrusted to the former regime’s military.

“[The Syrian air force was] in charge of bodies going from military hospitals – where bodies were collected after they’d been tortured to death – to different intelligence branches, and then they would be sent to a mass grave location,” he said.

Members of Syria's White Helmets civil defence transport body-bags containing human remains. Picture: Aris Messinis/AFP

People stand next to a trench believed to be used as a mass grave on the outskirts of Damascus. Picture: Aris Messinis/AFP

Moustafa said the grave matches the description from funeral officer personnel who helped unload the bodies.

Moustafa’s group also spoke to bulldozer drivers who worked at the site.

“The bulldozer excavator driver described how intelligence officers forced workers to use the bulldozer to flatten and compress the bodies to make them fit and easier to bury before digging the next line/trench,” Moustafa told CNN. 

Moustafa said gravediggers who worked at the site had told him “four tractor trailer trucks, each carrying over 150 bodies in each, came twice a week from 2012 until 2018”.

The site is believed to be one of the largest mass graves uncovered in modern history.

A Stalin-era mass grave in Ukraine – located at Bykivnia, a forest outside the capital Kyiv – is estimated to be the burial site of more than 200,000 executed political prisoners, according to the BBC.

Along with the mass grave in al-Qutayfah, reports have emerged of dozens of bodies found in the Daraa governorate, in southern Syria.

AFP footage shows bodies sprawled out in bags outside the hole, with men pulling bones from the dirt where they were found.

Body bags lie on a field after a mass grave was discovered in an agricultural land in Izra, in Syria's southern Daraa province, on December 16, 2024. Picture: Sam Hariri/AFP

Over 150,000 people disappeared under the Assad regime, whose administration regularly arrested and tortured dissenters and threw them into prisons never to be seen again, according to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).

The true number of the missing during the years of the bloody civil war and after has yet to be independently verified.

Jenifer Fenton, the spokesperson for the United Nations’ special envoy to Syria, has called on the rebels to secure related documents to Assad’s detention sites and mass graves to ensure justice and accountability.
“We must prioritise accounting for the missing, ensuring the families receive the clarity and recognition they desperately need,” she said in a statement.

The Syrian rebels, led by Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, have vowed to hold Assad’s administration accountable for the alleged human rights violations and war crimes.

Syrian conflict ‘has not ended’

The discovery comes as the UN’s envoy to Syria warned the conflict “has not ended” even after the departure of Assad, highlighting clashes between Turkish-backed and Kurdish groups in the north.

Geir Pedersen, the UN’s special envoy for Syria, also called at the Security Council for Israel to “cease all settlement activity in the occupied Syrian Golan” and said an end to sanctions would be key to assisting the country.

Speaking about Turkish-backed and Kurdish fighters on Tuesday, Pedersen warned “there have been significant hostilities in the last two weeks, before a ceasefire was brokered.”

“A five-day ceasefire has now expired and I am seriously concerned about reports of military escalation,” he said.

“Such an escalation could be catastrophic.”

Shortly after Pedersen spoke, the United States announced it had brokered an extension of a ceasefire, to the end of the week, between pro-Turkish fighters and Syrian Kurds at the flashpoint town of Manbij.

Pedersen also said he had met with Syria’s new de facto leadership following the rebels’ lightning takeover, and toured the infamous Sednaya prison’s “dungeons” and “torture and execution chambers,” operated under Assad’s government.

He called for “broad support” for Syria and an end to sanctions to allow for reconstruction of the war-ravaged country.

“Concrete movement on an inclusive political transition will be key in ensuring Syria receives the economic support it needs,” Pedersen said.

– With AFP