Massacre in Syria. A decade after Daraya, people are still missing

Between 24 and 26 August, at least 700 civilians were summarily executed in Daraya, a city south-west of Damascus. Ten years later, the British Syrian Consortium, created to help establish a free and democratic Syria, announces the results of a two-year investigation.

The consortium interviewed 25 people, mostly witnesses, but also victims who survived the massacre. They are currently between 29 and 75 years old. Two other interviewees were not in Daraya, but are responsible for documenting the information they received from the city.

Of the more than 700 dead, only 514 have been identified, including 36 women and 63 children.

The military operation in Daraya, launched by the Syrian armed forces, supported by the Republican Guard, Hezbollah and Iranian militias, began with a total siege of the city and 5 days of indiscriminate bombing that hit schools, hospitals and residential buildings. The air force used the tactic of double bombing, that is, attacking a place and then bombing again when the emergency teams try to treat the wounded.

On the 24th the attacks ceased, the soldiers entered the city and went from door to door, rounding up men, women and children. They looted houses and executed hundreds of people, arrested an unknown number of civilians and a decade later there are many who have never been seen again. Witnesses say that when the shelling ended, people tried to flee the city, but soldiers stationed at checkpoints shot and killed entire families.

A witness who spoke to survivor Sami Murad said “I was in line, I heard gunshots in the distance, but I didn’t know what was going on. Then I saw Sami Murad and another man walking towards me and they were covered.” in blood He told me that he was trying to flee the city when the soldiers at the checkpoint asked him to park his car at the foot of an alley. While he was there he heard the soldiers talking to the people and leading them to that alley. He thought they were being searched, but they didn’t show up again. He began to hear gunshots and screams and realized what was happening. It was when he got closer and saw bodies on the ground that he fled.”

At this point alone, at a road junction leading to the capital, Damascus, at least 55 people were executed. On the 25th, government forces killed around 80 civilians in a building. The men were taken to the basement of the building and executed after a graduate reprimanded the soldiers for not hearing the gunshots. Women and children were killed in the apartments.

On the night of the 25th, the bodies of hundreds of people began to be collected and taken to the Abu Suleiman Al-Darani Mosque. Some 300 men, women and children killed in that area were buried in a mass grave. A witness repeats the words he heard at dawn and says that he will not forget “this ditch is full, we have to dig another one”.

Based on interviews and existing documentation, the consortium says there are reasonable grounds to believe the Syrian government and its allies have committed a number of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, enforced disappearance, torture, looting and targeting civilians.

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Source: TSF

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