The mass grave in Aleppo is the latest of its kind to be found in Syria, in the aftermath of the Assad regime’s fall [Getty/file photo]
A new mass grave containing hundreds of bodies was discovered in the Syrian city of Aleppo, the ministry of interior said on Monday.
A resident of Aleppo informed the police of “the existence of a mass grave containing hundreds of bodies”, the ministry said in a statement on Telegram.
“Brigadier General Ahmed Latouf, the commander of the Aleppo province police, headed to the site to investigate the case,” it added.
The bodies will be identified through DNA testing, the ministry said in a statement on Telegram.
A number of civil defence teams also confirmed the mass graves found in Aleppo, The New Arab’s Arabic-language site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported. Official images shared by the ministry also confirmed the existence of these mass graves.
An officer said that the mass graves were located in the Khan al-Assal district of Aleppo, around five kilometres (around three miles) away from the military academy.
The graves are believed to date back to between 2011 and 2013 after an officer told Al Jazeera Arabic that he had seen trucks affiliated with the Syrian regime dumping bodies in similar graves in the area during that time.
The officer also told the Qatari broadcaster that he saw ditches in the area, which could also be used as mass graves. Some of the graves were solely marked with numbers and did not bear any names.
The bodies are believed to be the remains of those tortured and killed by forces loyal to the Assad regime, with several forcibly disappeared individuals likely buried there.
The Aleppo mass grave is the latest of its kind to be discovered in Syria, in the aftermath of the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which occurred following a rapid offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which began in the northwest Syrian city, in late November.
Aleppo was the first city to be captured by the HTS rebels before other key cities also followed.
The decades-long regime was ousted by the rebels in early December, following the capture of the capital Damascus. Assad and his immediate family have since fled to Russia, where they were granted asylum.
Aleppo, one of Syria’s biggest cultural and economic hubs, was held by opposition rebels during the civil war until it was conquered by Assad’s pro-Iranian forces in 2016.
On Sunday, multiple mass graves were discovered in the rural area of Homs, central Syria, as well as the southern city of Suweida, according to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. At least four were found in the village of Al-Qabu in the Homs region.
Other mass graves have been found near Damascus, and Daraa have also been found. The latter contained remains of women and children.
The Iranian and Russian-backed Assad regime brutally suppressed opposition activists in the country throughout the Syrian civil war, committing atrocities classified as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Thousands of Syrians were forcibly disappeared during this period. The UK-based Syrian Network for Human Rights monitor says 12,414 individuals out of 136,614 forcibly disappeared persons remain unaccounted for.
