The Syrian Emergency Task Force chief, Mouaz Moustafa, said that a mass grave found outside Damascus contained the bodies of at least 100,000 people killed under ousted President Bashar al-Assad. The grave, in al-Qutayfah about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the Syrian capital, is one of five mass burial sites identified by Moustafa over time.
Moustafa characterized the 100,000 figure as a “very, very extremely, almost unfairly, conservative estimate” when referring to how many bodies were buried in this one location. He said there are other mass graves beyond this one that contain not only Syrians but foreigners.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are believed to have been killed since the civil war broke out in 2011, following al-Assad’s brutal repression of protests against his rule. Al-Assad and his father, Hafez al-Assad, who ruled as president until his death in 2000, have been accused by Syrians, human rights organizations, and foreign governments of carrying out widespread extrajudicial killings and mass executions, especially in the country’s notorious prison system.
Yet, al-Assad has always denied that his regime commits human rights abuses, labeling his opponents “extremists.” It is a grim discovery-a reminder of the humanitarian tragedy in Syria-and it ups the ante for accountability and justice.
