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A HARROWING timelapse has exposed the devastating transformation of a once-unremarkable site near Damascus into one of Syria’s largest mass graves.
It was at the site in Al-Qutayfah where tens of thousands of bodies are believed to have been buried under Bashar al-Assad’s barbaric regime.
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The Al-Qutayfah mass grave, located 50 kilometres northeast of the capital, reveals chilling evidence of the systematic disappearance of Assad’s perceived enemies during the height of the civil war.
Before the outbreak of war in 2011, Al-Qutayfah appeared to be nothing more than open land.
But satellite imagery and witness testimonies suggest the site became a graveyard of atrocities as early as 2012.
By 2013, long trenches — up to 50 meters in length — were dug under strict military supervision, hidden from the public eye.
And over the next several years, refrigerated trucks carrying bodies began arriving under the cover of darkness, dumping human remains into these pits.
Eyewitnesses described horrifying scenes.
Mohammad Abou al-Bahaa, a teacher performing military service in Al-Qutayfah, recalled the “worst smell you could ever smell” emanating from the area.
Soldiers told him it was from “carcasses,” though it quickly became clear these were human bodies, victims of detention centre torture, disease, and execution.
“I would see refrigerated trucks filled with bodies, some in plastic bags and others uncovered,” he told The Times.
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One local told Channel 4 News of when he saw a female gymnast among the dead, still wearing her sports clothes, moments before she was buried.
Another, meanwhile, recounted how the fire brigade was once called to thaw over 100 bodies that had frozen together, enabling soldiers to separate and bury them.
“Blood would be pouring out the bottom of the trucks,” said a gravedigger near the site.
For years, civilians were forbidden from approaching the area, their questions silenced by threats.
The timelapse shows how the grave expanded dramatically between 2013 and 2015.
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Historic satellite images reveal the creation of a 10-acre burial site, which was later surrounded by high walls and bulldozed to erase evidence.
In recent years, the area has been repurposed as a Hezbollah base, with army vehicles and communication equipment scattered across the grounds.
And beneath it, an unthinkable number of bodies remain abandoned and unidentified.
Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, told Channel 4 News: “Where are the forensic teams? Where are the experts to exhume and identify the remains? My friends and even family members could be buried here.”
Al-Qutayfah is not the only location to bear witness to the regime’s mass killing.
The nearby Adra graveyard, located in a Damascus suburb, tells a similarly grim story.
The mass burial ground was constructed following the United States’ infamous “red line” warnings in 2014.
In response to Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapon attacks on civilians, President Barack Obama declared that further use of such weapons would trigger military intervention.
Yet, weeks after Assad’s supposed renunciation of chemical weapons, satellite imagery reveals the construction of Adra’s purpose-built mass grave began in July 2014.
Rows of meticulously planned trenches and roads designed for body-filled lorries soon appeared, suggesting a chilling level of organisation.
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The burial site, located near a government office, expanded systematically over the years, with grave lines appearing in successive satellite images until as recently as 2021.
The timing of the site’s construction coincided with Assad’s contested election victory, which saw his third presidential term inaugurated on July 16, 2014.
At the time, the international community widely condemned the election as illegitimate.
William Hague, then British Foreign Secretary, remarked: “Assad lacked legitimacy before this election, and he lacks it afterwards. This election bore no relation to genuine democracy.”
Despite the regime’s claims of normalcy, Adra’s graveyard became yet another tool of mass terror.
Witnesses interviewed by ITV say that the bodies buried at the site belonged to civilian victims of the Assad regime.
Blood-streaked trucks delivered corpses under the watchful eyes of soldiers, mirroring the practices described at Al-Qutayfa.
The Assad regime’s systematic disposal of bodies reflects the brutal scale of Syria’s conflict.
Of the 136,000 forcibly disappeared Syrians, at least 105,000 remain unaccounted for.
The sites at Al-Qutayfa and Adra represent just a fraction of the fallen regime’s hidden atrocities.
What were Obama's red line warnings?
THE “red line” warnings referred to a statement made by U.S. President Barack Obama in August 2012.
During a press conference, he warned that the use or movement of chemical weapons by Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria would cross a “red line” for the United States, potentially triggering military intervention.
The former US President said at the time: “We have been very clear to the Assad regime… that a red line for us is if we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilised.
"That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.”
This warning came as Syria’s civil war intensified and there were growing concerns over Assad’s stockpile of chemical weapons.
However, the “red line” gained global significance in 2013 after the Syrian regime carried out a large-scale chemical attack in Ghouta, a Damascus suburb, killing over 1,000 people, including civilians.
The attack, widely attributed to Assad’s forces, violated international norms and the US red line.
While military intervention appeared imminent in response to the attack, Obama ultimately backed away from strikes, opting instead for a diplomatic solution brokered by Russia.
In the resulting deal, Assad pledged to dismantle his chemical weapons arsenal and allow international inspections.
The agreement, formalised in 2013, was seen as a temporary resolution, though critics argued it emboldened Assad.
By 2014, Assad was still in power, and evidence suggested continued atrocities, including alleged chemical attacks and mass killings.
The “red line” moment became a symbol of perceived US inaction, sparking criticism that it allowed the Syrian regime to continue its brutal crackdown with little consequence.
English (US) · 