A mass grave uncovered at al-Qutayfah, approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Damascus, contains the remains of at least 100,000 people killed by the regime of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to Mouaz Moustafa, head of the Syrian Emergency Task Force.
Moustafa, who has identified five mass grave sites over the years, stated that this number represents the most conservative estimate. “It’s an extremely conservative number, and the real scale may be far greater,” he said.
He further claimed that additional mass graves exist across the country, containing not only Syrian victims but also foreign nationals.
The Syrian Civil War, which began in 2011 following al-Assad’s violent crackdown on protests, has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Both Bashar al-Assad and his father, Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria until his death in 2000, have been accused of orchestrating extrajudicial killings and mass executions, particularly within the country’s notorious prison system.
While al-Assad has consistently denied these allegations, he has dismissed his critics as “extremists.” International human rights organizations and governments continue to highlight the systematic abuses under the regime, emphasizing the devastating toll of over a decade of conflict.
