A mass grave near Damascus contains at least 100,000 bodies

On Monday, the head of a US-based Syrian advocacy organization revealed that a mass grave outside Damascus holds the remains of at least 100,000 people killed by the regime of former President Bashar Assad.

Mouaz Moustafa, speaking to Reuters by phone from Damascus, explained that the grave, located at al Qutayfah, about 25 miles (40 km) north of the Syrian capital, was one of five mass graves he had identified over the years.

"The estimate of 100,000 is the most conservative," said Moustafa, the head of the Syrian Emergency Task Force. "It’s an extremely conservative estimate, almost unfairly so."

Moustafa expressed confidence that there are more mass graves beyond the five sites he identified, and he noted that, alongside Syrian victims, the graves also contained bodies of US and British citizens, as well as other foreigners. Reuters could not independently verify Moustafa’s claims.

Since 2011, when Assad’s brutal suppression of protests against his rule escalated into a full-blown civil war, hundreds of thousands of Syrians are estimated to have been killed.

Both Assad and his father Hafez, who served as president before him and passed away in 2000, are accused by Syrians, human rights organizations, and foreign governments of committing widespread extrajudicial killings, including mass executions within Syria’s notorious prison system.

Assad has consistently denied that his government committed any human rights abuses, portraying his critics as extremists.

Syria’s UN Ambassador, Koussay Aldahhak, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Aldahhak, who took office in January, during Assad’s regime, stated last week that he was waiting for instructions from the new government and would "continue defending and working for the Syrian people."

Moustafa, who arrived in Syria after Assad fled to Russia and his regime collapsed following a swift offensive by rebels, spoke with Reuters after being interviewed by Britain’s Channel 4 News at the al Qutayfah mass grave site.

He claimed that the intelligence branch of the Syrian Air Force was responsible for transferring bodies from military hospitals, where those tortured to death were gathered, to various intelligence branches and then to mass grave locations.

Moustafa added that corpses were also moved by the Damascus municipal funeral office, whose staff helped unload the bodies from refrigerated tractor-trailers.

"We spoke with individuals who worked on these mass graves and later escaped Syria, some with our help," Moustafa said.

His organization has also communicated with bulldozer operators who were ordered to dig the graves, sometimes crushing the bodies to make them fit before covering them with dirt.

Moustafa expressed concern that the grave sites remain unsecured and emphasized the need to preserve them to protect evidence for future investigations.