Assad’s chilling ‘Iron Press’ used to CRUSH victims after they had been executed found at ‘human slaughterhouse’ prison

REBELS have discovered what is believed to be Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad's disturbing "Iron Press" device.

It was uncovered at the tyrant's barbaric "human slaughterhouse" jail where it is believed to have been used to crush victims.

Prisoners locked up under ousted Assad's regime remain trapped inside the barbaric jail.

Thousands of freed prisoners returned to the streets of Damascus over the weekend after Assad's regime crumbled - but many are still said to be fighting for their lives inside secret underground cells.

One of the biggest rebel operations after overthrowing Assad saw them liberate the harrowing Sednaya prison in the neighbouring city.

The jail had become synonymous with Assad's reign of tyranny over the past couple of decades.

Footage online appears to show rebel forces desperately trying to break through prison walls in Sednaya.

Chilling videos from inside the liberated jail also shows rebels looking around a room which appears to be where executions may have taken place.

A machine known as the "Iron Execution Press" can reportedly be seen which has been described by human right's organisations as a death trap used to crush victims.

After prisoners were allegedly executed the guards would place them on the iron press.

They also found dozens of red rope nooses used for mass hangings in an execution room.

Desperate attempts to liberate these people have proved to be difficult so far.

They say that behind many of the walls sit electronic underground doors which led to dark bunkers filled with prisoners.

Those freed said the hidden cells had been called the "red wards".

Authorities in Damascus have been leading the efforts to access the secret cells but fear some prisoners could be "choking to death" from a lack of ventilation.

They are also struggling to break through many of the electronic doors which have secret passcodes, according to the Damascus Countryside Governorate.

Syrian civil defence group, the White Helmets, are now investigating the claims by survivors and carrying out "specialised emergency" searches to locate the underground cells.

Rights groups believe these hidden room were used as holding pens before taking prisoners to be executed.

Videos showed emaciated political prisoners, who were reached, shackled to concrete beds and screaming to be released.

The brutality of the jail has always been a topic of discussion for human rights groups but ever since prisoners were freed on Sunday more accusations have emerged.

Families rushed to the jail for news of loved ones after Assad — who locked up and killed around 110,000 opponents — was toppled at the weekend.

Many were disappointed with thousands of the “disappeared” still unaccounted for. But among those tasting freedom — after 33 years — was Suhail al-Hamwi.

The 61-year-old hugged his grandchildren after his release from the jail in the outskirts of capital Damascus.

Another freed prisoner, 63-year-old Bashar Barhoum, who says he was due to be executed on Sunday, told AP: “I haven’t seen the sun until today.

He said he awoke in his prison bed on Sunday morning believeing it would be the last day of his life as he was due to be executed after seven months in the hell jail.

He added: “Instead of being dead tomorrow, thank God, he gave me a new lease of life.”

Another man told a rebel: “We are kept in the dormitory, with 25 people crammed together.

“We only know some of each other’s names because we are forced to sit and look down at all times.”

A third young Syrian man told Al Jazeera: "I had no name in the prison, just a number. I lost my identity, my name and my character.

"I was taken by the regime, and my family assumed I was dead.”

The White Helmets co-ordinated the search, poring over maps before setting out to clear the Red Building, where civilians were detained, and search for underground cells.

The White Building, where soldiers were held, also housed the execution room where 30,000 are thought to have died.

It was even labelled as a "human slaughterhouse" by Amnesty International.

The group said it believed dozens of people were secretly executed each week at Saydnaya.

The Turkey-based Association of Detainees and The Missing in Sednaya Prison (ADMSP) also claim that the prison became a "death camp" after the start of the civil war.

They estimated more than 30,000 prisoners had been executed or died in horrific circumstances, such as torture or starvation, between 2011 and 2018.

Around 500 more inmates had been executed between 2018 and 2021, ADMSP added.

The Syrian government has always dismissed the claims as "baseless" and "devoid of truth".

A spokesman for the Syrian Emergency Task Force last night urged: “The world needs to send international rescue teams and save who’s left now.”

The Damascus Countryside Governorate said it feared thousands of prisoners could suffocate underground, although a group representing inmates cast doubt on the numbers involved.

Harrowing accounts from thousands of inmates released across the last few years and even more from heartbroken families have described some of the methods used by guards to break prisoners.

Many claim physical and psychological abuse was a daily occurrence.

Some claim they were badly beaten, sexually abused and forced to withstand torture all while their families were never told if they lived or died behind bars.

The conditions were said to be equally as barbaric with overcrowding and a lack of food, water and medical supplies all being reported.

Among those travelling to Damascus for news of family members was Ahmed Najjar.

He travelled 220 miles from Aleppo hoping to trace his brother’s two children, who were seized by Assad’s security forces in 2012. He said: “They’re saying there’s an underground prison.”

Alikabor, 29, had travelled from Germany to look for the brother he last saw in 2013.

At the Turkey-Syria border, he said: “We were at university together. I’d been away two days to see our parents when some friends rang to tell me he’d disappeared.

“We’ve had no news of him since. We don’t know if he’s dead or alive.”

Dr Sharvan Ibesh was looking for his pal’s dad — taken to the jail after Assad launched a crackdown in 2011 when the Arab Spring threatened his reign.

He said: “Hundreds of people were coming out the prison and we were told we could not come in as so many people were getting in the way of the rescuers.

“We were told that many prisoners have been moved to another location.”

The International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) have spent years reporting on Assad's prison networks.

They found that electrocution, sexual violence and burning were all torture methods used.

Another brutal ploy they described as being done was dubbed the “Flying carpet”.

It involved strapping down a prisoner to a wooden board before beating them, the IIIM claims.

Footage from the Syrian capital shows dozens of women and young men reportedly walking free for the first time in years after rebels stormed the national prisons this weekend.

A clip even shows a toddler leaving a cell as rebels cheered on.

TYRANT OUT

Ordinary Syrians continued to celebrate the end of the rule of Assad, whose family’s 53-year dynasty was brought down in a 12-day offensive.

His presidential palace was ransacked, looters taking his and UK-born wife Asma’s personal possessions.

The mansion of his brother Major General Maher al-Assad, who led a Syrian Army unit, was also turned over.

Footage showed what appeared to be a network of tunnels beneath it with high-arched ceilings, electronic doors and rooms under the house including a fully kitted-out kitchen complete with Pepsi cans and Tetley tea.

The armed wing of rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which brought down Assad, has said it would form a transitional government soon.

Western powers, however, fear a power vacuum that could lead to the resurgence of ISIS.

US jets targeted 75 ISIS targets in the east of Syria to “disrupt, degrade, and defeat” the terror group so it “does not seek to take advantage”.

Diplomats were also wrestling with how best to deal with HTS, an al-Qaeda offshoot led by softly-spoken Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, a jihadist who once praised the 9/11 attackers.

He wants to impose strict Sharia law on Syria.

The White House said it would “work with all the groups in Syria”, while Turkey said developments in the country had “given us a glimmer of hope”.

Israel, meanwhile, blasted chemical weapons sites in Syria to prevent them falling into the hands of rebel groups — and occupied the Golan Heights.

Foreign minister Gideon Saar said the Israel Defence Forces had taken “temporary and focused control of strategic areas near the border” to prevent another October 7 attack.

The prison liberation comes amid a cascade of events that have toppled Assad's 24-year rule.

After seizing Damascus in a swift and decisive offensive, rebel forces declared victory and announced that the city was "free of Assad."

The dictator fled the capital on Sunday, reportedly aboard a plane that disappeared from radars.

He has been given refuge in Moscow and is currently under Russian protection.

The collapse of Assad's regime ignited celebrations across Syria.

In the capital, thousands poured into the streets, waving rebel flags and lighting flares.

Statues of Assad and his late father, Hafez, were toppled in symbolic acts of defiance.

At Assad’s presidential palace, rebels filmed themselves looting valuables, including luxury vehicles and designer goods.