A new report has revealed that more than 1,000 detainees died at Mezzeh military airport in Damascus due to execution, torture, and maltreatment. The report, published by the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC), traces the deaths to seven suspected grave sites, some located within the airport grounds and others scattered across Damascus.
The findings, based on satellite imagery, leaked documents, and survivor testimonies, offer a harrowing look into the Syrian regime’s system of enforced disappearances. While Reuters could not independently verify the mass graves, its review of satellite images showed signs of disturbed earth in locations pinpointed by the SJAC. Two sites, one on Mezzeh airport property and another at a cemetery in Najha, exhibited long trenches dug during time frames that match witness testimonies.
Inside the Torture Chambers of Mezzeh
Shadi Haroun, a former detainee and co-author of the report, detailed the brutal conditions inside Mezzeh. Arrested for organizing protests, he endured months of physical and psychological torture designed to extract false confessions. Prisoners, he recounted, lived in constant fear, with death manifesting in multiple ways.
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“Occasional shootings, shot by shot, every couple of days,” Haroun recalled, suggesting systematic executions. Other detainees perished from untreated wounds. “A small wound on the foot of one of the detainees, caused by a whipping, was left untreated until it turned to gangrene and required amputation,” he described.
The SJAC, in collaboration with the Association for the Detained and Missing Persons in Sednaya Prison, gathered testimonies from 156 survivors and eight former Air Force Intelligence officers. According to the report, Mezzeh housed at least 29,000 detainees between 2011 and 2017, with its facilities—including hangars, dormitories, and offices—converted into makeshift prisons by 2020.
The Fate of the Missing and Unmarked Graves
Syria’s new government, which replaced Bashar al-Assad’s administration in December, has prohibited former regime officials from speaking publicly. However, a senior official in the Interior Ministry, who identified himself as Abu Baker, acknowledged the significance of the report’s findings.
“Although some of the graves mentioned in the report had not been discovered before, the discovery itself does not surprise us,” he stated. “We know that more than 100,000 missing persons were in Assad’s prisons and never resurfaced.”
The report’s estimates stem from leaked Air Force Intelligence records listing 1,154 detainees who died at Mezzeh between 2011 and 2017. These figures were corroborated by documents and witness testimonies. Notably, the tally does not include executions sanctioned by a military field court established inside a hangar at Mezzeh.
International Response and War Crimes Charges
The systematic nature of the killings at Mezzeh has drawn international scrutiny. Witnesses described how military personnel were executed by firing squads, while civilians were hanged, their bodies often buried near the execution sites.
In December, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed war crimes charges against two high-ranking Syrian Air Force Intelligence officers, accusing them of overseeing the inhumane treatment of detainees at Mezzeh. Among the victims were U.S. citizens.
The SJAC’s report adds to mounting evidence of human rights abuses committed under Assad’s rule. With hundreds of thousands of Syrians killed since the 2011 uprising, the search for mass graves remains one of the most pressing tasks for the new government and the international community.