QUTAYFAH, Syria. A war crimes prosecutor has revealed that evidence from mass grave sites in Syria has exposed a state-run “machinery of death” under former President Bashar al-Assad, estimating that more than 100,000 people have been tortured and murdered since 2013.
After visiting two mass grave sites near Damascus in Qutayfah and Najha, former U.S. war crimes ambassador Stephen Rapp stated, “We certainly have more than 100,000 people that were disappeared into and tortured to death in this machine. I don’t have much doubt about those kinds of numbers given what we’ve seen in these mass graves.”
Rapp, who has worked on war crimes tribunals in Rwanda and Sierra Leone, emphasized the scale of the atrocities: “We really haven’t seen anything quite like this since the Nazis.” He continued, “From the secret police who disappeared people from their streets and homes, to the jailers and interrogators who starved and tortured them to death, to the truck drivers and bulldozer drivers who hid their bodies, thousands of people were working in this system of killing. We are talking about a system of state terror, which became a machinery of death.”
The mass graves reflect the horrific toll of the Syrian civil war, with an estimated 400,000 Syrians killed since 2011, when Assad’s crackdown on anti-government protests escalated into a full-scale conflict. Both Assad and his late father, Hafez al-Assad, have faced long-standing accusations from human rights groups and governments for mass executions and chemical weapons use. While Assad has repeatedly denied human rights violations, labeling his opponents as extremists, these new revelations intensify calls for accountability.
Mouaz Moustafa, head of the U.S.-based Syrian Emergency Task Force, who also visited the Qutayfah site, estimated that at least 100,000 bodies are buried there alone. The International Commission on Missing Persons in The Hague has separately indicated that there may be up to 66 unverified mass grave sites across Syria, with over 157,000 people reported missing.
Kathryne Bomberger, the commission’s head, stated that the organization’s portal for reporting missing persons is “exploding” with new reports from families. She noted that DNA testing would require at least three relatives to provide samples, making the identification process long and difficult.
Local residents near the mass grave sites provided disturbing testimonies of the systematic killings. One farmer, Abb Khalid, who lives near the Najha cemetery, recalled, “The graves were prepared in an organized manner – the truck would come, unload the cargo it had, and leave. There were security vehicles with them, and no one was allowed to approach; anyone who got close used to go down with them.”
Satellite imagery analyzed by Reuters showed large-scale digging at the Qutayfah site between 2012 and 2014, with excavators and trucks visible in images from the period.
Omar Hujeirati, a former anti-Assad protest leader, suspected that some of his missing relatives may be buried in the graves, as they were detained for protesting against Assad’s regime. “That was my sin, what made them take my family,” he said.
The details of Syria’s mass graves first emerged during 2021 and 2023 hearings in Germany and the U.S. Congress. A key witness, known only as “the grave digger,” testified about his work at the Najha and Qutayfah sites, where he transported bodies from military hospitals and intelligence agencies to the graves. He recalled that between 2011 and 2018, refrigeration trucks carrying hundreds of corpses arrived regularly at the sites.
“Every week, twice a week, three trailer trucks arrived, packed with 300 to 600 bodies of victims of torture, starvation, and execution from military hospitals and intelligence branches around Damascus,” the grave digger testified.
While the grave digger escaped Syria in 2018 and continues to testify with his identity protected, these chilling testimonies continue to call for justice and accountability for the victims of Syria’s brutal regime.
