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QAMISHLI, syria/" class="auto-internal-link">syria (North Press) – The administration of former syrian leader Bashar al-Assad carried out a secret two-year operation, dubbed “Operation Move Earth,” to transfer thousands of bodies from a mass grave in Qutayfah to a hidden site in the Dhumair desert northeast of damascus, a Reuters investigation disclosed on Tuesday. The clandestine operation, conducted between 2019 and 2021, aimed to conceal evidence of mass killings and improve the regime’s image, witnesses informed Reuters. The agency spoke with 13 people directly involved in the operation, reviewed official documents, and analyzed satellite images showing both sites. Witnesses stated that for nearly two years, six to eight trucks filled with dirt and human remains traveled nightly from Qutayfah to Dhumair, more than an hour away.
The emerging site, Dhumair, contains at least 34 trenches stretching about two kilometers, suggesting that tens of thousands of people may be buried there. The Qutayfah grave, first exposed by activists in 2014, held bodies of prisoners and soldiers who died in Assad’s prisons and armed forces hospitals. By 2021, all 16 trenches at the site had been emptied, as per witnesses.
The administration of Ahmad al-Sharaa did not respond to Reuters’ inquiries, and the agency withheld the site’s coordinates to prevent tampering. Assad and multiple senior officers linked to the operation reportedly fled Syria following the regime’s fall last year. Rights groups estimate more than 160,000 syrians remain missing.
Additionally, mohammed Reda Jehlki, head of the national Commission for Missing People, stated efforts to identify victims are hindered by limited resources, though a DNA database is being planned. Indeed, mohamed al-Abdallah, head of the Syrian Justice and Accountability Center, warned that relocating the remains “makes identifying victims far more difficult. ” By Jwan Shekaki