Discovery of two Syria mass graves further proof of Assad's horrific war crimes

The discovery of two secret mass graves in Syria, possibly containing thousands of bodies, added to the evidence of horrific war crimes perpetrated by Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad during the decade-long civil war.

A close examination of satellite images, alongside interviews from four individuals who worked at the sites, revealed these secret cemeteries hold thousands of bodies, according to an investigation by The New York Times.

This discovery could answer one of the enduring questions of the war, revealing what happened to the tens of thousands of people detained by the Syrian regime since the start of the 2011 uprising. 

Many of these prisoners are likely to have been killed at the notorious Sednaya prison near Damascus.

"If the issue of the missing and the disappeared is not resolved, there can never be peace in Syria," said Diab Serrih, the co-founder of an association of former detainees of the prison.

President Assad stamped out dissent and detained tens of thousands of protestors, activists, and others uninvolved in anti-regime activities almost as soon as the Syrian uprising began in 2011.

At least 14,000 of those prisoners were tortured to death, according to the US Treasury Department, although the real number is likely much higher.

A military defector, code-named Caesar, smuggled nearly 60,000 photographs out of Syria showing thousands of detainees killed by the regime.

Bashar Al-Assad's horrific campaign against his own people has been supported by Russian airpower and Iranian militias.

Moscow’s tactics of indiscriminately shelling urban centres and targeting civilian infrastructure, such as schools and hospitals, have been used during its brutal invasion of Ukraine.

Russia is likely responsible for thousands of civilian deaths in Syria since its intervention in 2015.