Up to 300,000 Syrians possibly missing under Assad family rule
Damascus
A Syrian commission for missing persons estimated that between 120,000 and 300,000 people have gone missing during more than five decades of authoritarian rule by the Al Assad family.
Mohammed Reda Jalkhi, the head of the National Commission for Missing Persons, said on Monday evening that between 120,000 and 300,000 people have gone missing since 1970.
'But the actual number may be much higher,' he told state news agency SANA.
He said that the governmental commission mandate covers the period from 1970 until now.
Hafez Al Assad served as president of Syria from 1971 till his death in 2000, after which his son, Bashar Al Assad, took over until he was overthrown by an rebel alliance in December.
Jalkhi said that the commission, which was formed in May, has so far documented 63 mass graves and they have received information about other locations that are yet to be verified. Tens of thousands of people disappeared after the 2011 pro-democracy protests against Al Assad's regime escalated into a full-scale civil war, displacing some 14 million people and killing more than 300,000 civilians, according to UN estimates.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights has previously said that around 157,000 went missing since March 2011.
Since Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow in December, the country has been ruled by a transitional administration led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
6 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US-led coalition captures a senior ISIL (ISIS) member in Syria: State media
A US-led coalition has captured a senior member of the ISIL (ISIS) group in northwest Syria, the SANA state news agency and a war monitor have reported, while another Syrian security source and Syria's state-owned Al-Ekhbariya said the man targeted was killed as he tried to escape. It was not immediately clear on Tuesday if the man might be ISIL's supreme leader. Two years ago, ISIL announced that a man called Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi was named as its new leader after Turkish authorities killed his predecessor. The United States military did not respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press news agency. The operation that included landing troops from helicopters occurred before dawn in Atmeh town near the Turkish border, and an ISIL commander known as Abu Hafs al-Qurashi, an Iraqi citizen, was taken away while another Iraqi citizen was killed, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). SOHR said the man captured had a French-speaking woman with him, and it was not immediately clear if she was taken by the US forces or by Syrian security forces who later cordoned off the area. Syrian state TV on Wednesday quoted an unnamed security official as saying the Iraqi man targeted in the operation is known as Ali, adding that his real name is Salah Noman. The report said that Noman was living in an apartment with his wife, son and mother. It said he was killed in the raid. There was no immediate clarification about the difference in names reported by state media and the war monitor. It was the second known raid in northern Syria by US troops since longtime leader Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December. The government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, which replaced him, has pledged to prevent a resurgence of ISIL and is part of an anti-ISIL alliance that includes the US-led coalition fighting the group. In late July, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said its forces killed a senior ISIL leader and his two sons affiliated with the group in Syria's Aleppo region, the US military has said. CENTCOM said at the time that it 'conducted a raid resulting in the death of senior ISIS Leader, Dhiya' Zawba Muslih al-Hardani, and his two adult ISIS-affiliated sons, Abdallah Dhiya al-Hardani and Abd al-Rahman Dhiya Zawba al-Hardani'. In late May, ISIL claimed responsibility for an attack on the Syrian army, representing the armed group's first strike at government forces since the fall of al-Assad, according to analysts. In a statement regarding that attack, ISIL said its fighters had planted an explosive device that struck a 'vehicle of the apostate regime' in southern Syria. ISIL, which views the new government in Damascus led by al-Sharaa as illegitimate, has mainly concentrated its activities against Kurdish forces in the north. At its peak, ISIL ruled an area half the size of the United Kingdom, spanning across Iraq and Syria, with Raqqa in the latter being the capital of the armed group's self-declared 'caliphate'. The group was notorious for its brutality, carrying out massacres of Syrians and Iraqis and beheading of foreign captives. ISIL's massacres included those of thousands of the Yazidi people and the group also enslaved thousands of Yazidi women. The Yazidis, a long-persecuted group whose faith is rooted in Zoroastrianism, are still recovering from the horrors of ISIL's onslaught on their community in Iraq's Sinjar district in 2014. ISIL was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, but its fighters and cadres of militants still carry out deadly attacks in both countries and elsewhere, including in Africa and Afghanistan. A deadly attack on Mar Elias Church in Damascus in June killed at least 25 people, after a man with a rifle entered the church and shot at worshippers, before detonating a suicide bomb. The Syrian Interior Ministry blamed ISIL for the attack, though another group called Saraya Ansar al-Sunna later claimed it.
Qatar Tribune
a day ago
- Qatar Tribune
Russia hands over 1,000 bodies, Ukraine 19 bodies of fallen soldiers
MoscowcTypeface:> Russia has returned the bodies of 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers, chief Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said on Tuesday. In exchange, Ukraine handed over the remains of 19 Russian soldiers, Medinsky added in comments made on Telegram. Kiev confirmed it had received the bodies. The war launched by Russia, now in its fourth year, has claimed tens of thousands of soldiers' lives on both sides. Following talks in Istanbul in May, several prisoner exchanges have taken place in recent months. Moscow has also pledged to return the bodies of thousands of soldiers. Russia said it had returned 7,000 bodies before the latest handover, while claiming Ukraine has transferred fewer than 100 in total. Moscow portrays this as proof that Ukraine has suffered far higher battlefield losses. (DPA)
Qatar Tribune
a day ago
- Qatar Tribune
Up to 300,000 Syrians possibly missing under Assad family rule
dpa Damascus A Syrian commission for missing persons estimated that between 120,000 and 300,000 people have gone missing during more than five decades of authoritarian rule by the Al Assad family. Mohammed Reda Jalkhi, the head of the National Commission for Missing Persons, said on Monday evening that between 120,000 and 300,000 people have gone missing since 1970. 'But the actual number may be much higher,' he told state news agency SANA. He said that the governmental commission mandate covers the period from 1970 until now. Hafez Al Assad served as president of Syria from 1971 till his death in 2000, after which his son, Bashar Al Assad, took over until he was overthrown by an rebel alliance in December. Jalkhi said that the commission, which was formed in May, has so far documented 63 mass graves and they have received information about other locations that are yet to be verified. Tens of thousands of people disappeared after the 2011 pro-democracy protests against Al Assad's regime escalated into a full-scale civil war, displacing some 14 million people and killing more than 300,000 civilians, according to UN estimates. The Syrian Network for Human Rights has previously said that around 157,000 went missing since March 2011. Since Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow in December, the country has been ruled by a transitional administration led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
