Mass grave found near Syria’s capital could contain thousands of bodies

A mass grave that could contain the remains of thousands of people has been found outside Syria’s capital Damascus, as the new interim government promises to hold accountable those responsible for atrocities under the ousted President Bashar al-Assad.

The site at al-Qutayfah, located 40km (25 miles) north of the capital, was one of several mass graves identified across the country after the collapse of the decades-long rule of the al-Assad family.

Twelve mass graves were also discovered in southern Syria. At one site, 22 bodies, including those of women and children, exhibited signs of execution and torture.

Al-Assad and his father Hafez, who preceded him as president and died in 2000, are accused of killing hundreds of thousands through extrajudicial killings, including in the country’s notorious prison system.Ugur Umit Ungor, professor of genocide studies at the University of Amsterdam, told Al Jazeera that the discovery of the “centralised mass grave” in al-Qutayfah was “a reflection of the killing machine of the Assad regime”.

Ungor said creating a DNA depository of the families whose relatives are missing would help match the remains to a name, giving closure to those still looking for their loved ones.

The professor was among a handful of academics who received videos and other evidence from anonymous sources as part of a yearlong investigation into the burial sites.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Vall, reporting from Qatana, said the Syrian air force intelligence was believed to have been in charge of transferring the bodies from the hospitals – where they were collected from after having been killed in prison – and taking them to the mass graves.

“These mass graves hold the secrets of 54 years of despotism, torture and dictatorship,” Vall said. “This is only the beginning.”