Additional Coverage:
A Syrian advocacy group, the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), has uncovered a mass grave 25 miles north of Damascus, containing over 100,000 bodies.
The grave is part of a vast network of prisons and burial sites where an estimated 100,000 people have vanished since 2011. Opposition groups and rescue workers are continuing to uncover evidence of human rights abuses committed by former President Bashar Assad’s regime.
The Qutayfah burial site was under military control and housed Iranian and Iraqi allies of Assad. Workers at the site described the grim conditions, with bodies being flattened by bulldozers and Farsi writing on some of the body bags.
Assad, who fled Syria after the fall of his regime, has blamed “terrorists” for its collapse but has not addressed the human rights allegations. The new rebel-led transitional government has vowed to hold those responsible accountable.