The head of a US-based Syrian human rights organization said on Monday that a mass grave outside Damascus contains the bodies of at least 100,000 people allegedly killed by the former government of ousted President Bashar al-Assad, Reuters reported, UNN reported.
Details
Muaz Mustafa, speaking to Reuters in a telephone interview from Damascus, said the site in al-Qutaifa, 40 kilometers north of the Syrian capital, was one of five mass graves he had discovered over the years.
"One hundred thousand is the most conservative estimate" of the number of bodies buried at the site, said Mustafa, head of the Syrian Emergency Task Force: "This is a very, very extremely almost unfairly conservative estimate.
Mustafa said he was certain that there were more than five mass graves, and that the victims included US and British citizens, as well as other foreigners, in addition to Syrians.
Reuters was unable to confirm Mustafa's claim.
Mustafa expressed concern that the gravesites were not protected and said they needed to be preserved to preserve evidence for investigations.
Addendum
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are estimated to have been killed since 2011, when Assad's suppression of protests against his rule escalated into a full-blown civil war.
Assad and his father, Hafez, who was president before him and died in 2000, have been accused by Syrians, human rights groups, and other governments of widespread extrajudicial executions, including mass executions in the country's notorious prison system.
Assad has repeatedly denied that his government has violated human rights and called his detractors extremists.