Current:Home > reviewsAt site of suspected mass killings, Syrians recall horrors, hope for answers -ProsperityStream Academy
At site of suspected mass killings, Syrians recall horrors, hope for answers
View
Date:2025-04-12 22:17:11
DAMASCUS — A hip bone in a blown-out building, part of a spine amid some debris, a few foot bones in a worn-out sock. The Tadamon district of Damascus is littered with bones, after what residents and rights groups described as years of killings there under the rule of Syria's Bashar al-Assad.
Tadamon became infamous after a video emerged in 2022 showing a man in military fatigues leading unarmed, blindfolded men towards a large ditch, telling them to run and shooting them at point-blank range as they neared the edge or after they fell in.
The incident took place in 2013, but the killings went on until very recently, residents told Reuters, saying they had regularly seen Syrian security forces bring men to the area, heard bursts of gunshots and smelled burning flesh afterwards.
Mohammad al-Darra, an elderly man from Tadamon, said he had stayed in the neighbourhood after the civil war began in 2011 because his family was afraid their apartment would be looted.
He said that year after year, he saw cars driven by Syrian armed forces bring "tied up people" to a tiny alley parallel to where the Tadamon massacre is thought to have taken place.
"At night you would hear it. Every shot fired went into a man," he said. Pointing to the dirt street and the gutted-out buildings alongside it, he added, "and this was the graveyard for all the corpses."
Reuters found bones piled amid trash, scorched plastic and dirty clothes in both of the buildings on either side, and saw children playing with what appeared to be rib bones and femurs.
Khaled Houriya, who runs a mechanic shop in the area, said he too had often heard gunshots and smelled burning flesh after returning to the neighborhood in 2019.
"This was known as execution street. Anyone who came to this street was considered lost," he said, adding that security forces often asked his neighbours to help them dig mass graves.
"Those things won't leave our memory. Corpses all over the floor — it became normal for people," Houriya said.
Too scared to speak
The residents said they had not dared speak out during Assad's rule, when criticism of the authorities was severely repressed. Some remained hesitant and spoke only with a first name, declining to be filmed.
"We couldn't say anything, otherwise they would burn your house down, or kill your son. It was ugly, ugly, ugly," Darra said.
But now, less than a week after Assad's ouster, residents and rights researchers hope the site can be cordoned off and those responsible for the killings held accountable.
"It is urgent that this location is secured, that the mass grave is exhumed, that international relevant bodies are allowed unhindered access to this area to be able to do this work carefully, cautiously and well," said Hiba Zayadin, the Syria researcher at advocacy group Human Rights Watch.
Zayadin said there was a risk that the mass grave had already been emptied by the forces of Assad's toppled government. "Families deserve to know what happened here," she said.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are estimated to have been killed since 2011, when Assad's crackdown on protests against him spiralled into a full-scale war that drew in regional powers.
Both Assad and his father Hafez, who preceded him as president and died in 2000, have been accused by rights groups and governments of widespread extrajudicial killings, including mass executions within the country's notorious prison system.
Assad repeatedly denied carrying out violations and painted his detractors as terrorists.
In 2023, the US State Department issued a travel ban against a Syrian security official and his immediate family over his alleged killing of at least 41 civilians in 2013 in Tadamon, calling it a "massacre."
The suspected location of the grave was identified by researchers at Human Rights Watch by matching satellite imagery with the scene in the video.
While a full examination of the site has yet to take place, the group has already found many traces of killings.
"We found human remains, bones, part of a skull, fingers, ribs, strewn around the entire area surrounding the mass grave, which shows that really a lot more happened here than what we already knew," Zayadin said.
Residents of Tadamon told Reuters the alley had been sealed off with metal barricades during years of heavy fighting between rebel fighters and Syrian government forces, including the National Defence Forces, a pro-Assad paramilitary force that was incorporated into the army in 2012.
Several said that earlier this year, they saw Syria's then-government forces remove some bones from the area and feared the grave — and crucial evidence — had been dug up.
The opening of Syria's prisons after Assad's ouster on Sunday (Dec 8) led to similar fears, with activists and families searching for detained relatives saying they feared that fleeing troops had destroyed evidence of their fate.
[[nid:712385]]
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
veryGood! (5459)
Related
- Selena Gomez engaged to Benny Blanco after 1 year together: 'Forever begins now'
- Prince William’s Special Role at The Duke and Duchess of Westminster's Royal Wedding Revealed
- Chiefs' BJ Thompson 'alert, awake' after suffering seizure and going into cardiac arrest
- Kia recalls nearly 463,000 Telluride SUVs due to fire risk, urges impacted consumers to park outside
- What to know about Tuesday’s US House primaries to replace Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz
- Rare 7-foot fish washed ashore on Oregon’s coast garners worldwide attention
- Nearly 130 more Red Lobster restaurants are in danger of closing: See list of locations
- Biden says he would not pardon son Hunter if he's convicted in gun trial
- 'Vanderpump Rules' star DJ James Kennedy arrested on domestic violence charges
- For $12, This Rotating Organizer Fits So Much Makeup in My Bathroom & Gives Cool Art Deco Vibes
Ranking
- New Zealand official reverses visa refusal for US conservative influencer Candace Owens
- These Ghostbusters Secrets Are Definitely Worth Another 5 a Year
- Why fireflies are only spotted in summer and where lightning bugs live the rest of the year
- Celine Dion talks stiff-person syndrome impact on voice: 'Like somebody is strangling you'
- What do we know about the mysterious drones reported flying over New Jersey?
- UFO investigation launched in Japan after U.S. report designates region as hotspot for sightings
- Anchorage police won’t release bodycam video of 3 shootings. It’s creating a fight over transparency
- How many points did Caitlin Clark score today? No. 1 pick scores career-high threes in win
Recommendation
$73.5M beach replenishment project starts in January at Jersey Shore
Demand for food delivery has skyrocketed. So have complaints about some drivers
Appeals court upholds conviction of British national linked to Islamic State
Make a Splash With 60% Off Deals on Swimwear From Nordstrom Rack, Aerie, Lands’ End, Cupshe & More
Trump issues order to ban transgender troops from serving openly in the military
Blistering heat wave in West set to stretch into weekend and could break more records
These Ghostbusters Secrets Are Definitely Worth Another 5 a Year
Miss Alabama Sara Milliken Claps Back at Body-Shamers