Assad govt ran secret two-year operation to relocate mass graves, hide killings in Syria: Report

A drone view of the mass grave site in the desert near the eastern Syrian town of Dhumair (Image courtesy: Reuters)

In the barren expanse of the Syrian desert outside Dhumair, a vast burial ground with dozens of long trenches has come to light, according to a Reuters investigation based on satellite images, interviews, and official documents. The site was created as part of a covert campaign, known to insiders as Operation Move Earth, designed to shift thousands of corpses from an earlier mass grave in Qutayfah to a more remote area. Witnesses involved in the mission said it stretched from 2019 to 2021 and was orchestrated by the Syrian military.

Reuters reported it spoke to 13 people who directly participated in or witnessed the transfers, including truck drivers, mechanics, a bulldozer worker and a former officer in the elite Republican Guard. Each recalled the smell that hung over the convoys of dirt-filled trucks. One of the drivers said, “No one would disobey the orders. You yourself might end up in the holes.”

The original burial site at Qutayfah, near Damascus, has been used since around 2012, according to people familiar with the location, Reuters reported. It held the bodies of detainees from prisons and military hospitals as well as regime soldiers. Images leaked by a Syrian activist in 2014 exposed its existence to local media, and later court testimony helped pinpoint where the graves were dug.

From February 2019 until April 2021, witnesses said, six to eight trucks laboured through the night almost every week, leaving Qutayfah and heading toward the Dhumair desert. There, new trenches had been dug -- 34 in total, each stretching roughly two kilometers -- creating what Reuters determined to be one of the largest mass grave complexes of the Syrian war. Tens of thousands of bodies may lie there, according to the report.

The relocation of remains began in late 2018, a period when President Bashar al-Assad had nearly secured victory in the civil war, according to the former Republican Guard officer, the report said. He said Assad’s commanders told those involved that the purpose of removing the bodies from Qutayfah was to erase evidence of war crimes and mass killings. Two drivers confirmed they were given the same explanation by officers overseeing the transfer.

Reuters was unable to find any official documentation mentioning Operation Move Earth, nor could it verify whether bodies from other undisclosed sites were also brought to Dhumair, the report said. But by the time Assad’s government fell last year, Reuters observed that all 16 trenches previously identified at Qutayfah had been emptied.

Former President Assad, who is currently in Russia, and the officers named by witnesses could not be reached. Reuters shared its investigation with the administration of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, now leading Syria, but the government did not immediately respond.

Syrian rights groups estimate that more than 160,000 people vanished into the security system during Assad’s rule. Many are believed to have been buried in secret graves just like Qutayfah. Families of the missing continue to demand answers, but there has been limited progress. Even widely known burial sites remain without protection, excavation or forensic investigation.

Efforts are now underway by Syria’s new National Commission for Missing People to build a DNA registry and digital platform to help match remains to family members. Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management Raed al-Saleh said the scale of atrocities makes the process slow, adding, “There is a bleeding wound as long as there are mothers waiting to find the graves of their sons, wives waiting to find the graves of their husbands, and children waiting to find the graves of their fathers.”

Human rights advocate Mohamed Al Abdallah, head of the Syria Justice and Accountability Center, condemned the secret transfer to Dhumair after learning of Reuters’ findings. “Piecing these bodies together so complete remains can be returned to families will be extremely complicated,” he said, calling the clandestine relocation catastrophic for future investigations. Still, he added that forming the commission on missing people was “a positive step” by the new Syrian leadership. “It has political support, but it still lacks the resources and the experts,” he noted.

Those who worked on Operation Move Earth said they feared for their lives throughout the mission. Speaking publicly during the transfers would have been suicidal, several of them confirmed. As one trucker put it plainly: “No one would disobey the orders.”

With inputs from Reuters