'Operation Move Earth': How ousted Syrian leader Assad relocated a mass grave; what was the purpose?

The Assad authorities carried retired a concealed two-year cognition to determination thousands of bodies from 1 of Syria’s largest known wide graves to a hidden tract successful the distant desert, Reuters has found.The operation, called “Operation Move Earth,” moved bodies from a sedate successful Qutayfah to a caller sedate successful the Dhumair desert. It ran from 2019 to 2021 and had not been reported before. Reuters spoke with 13 radical involved, reviewed documents, and analyzed hundreds of outer images to uncover the operation.“It was meant to screen up the Assad government’s crimes and assistance reconstruct its image,” witnesses said.Six to 8 trucks filled with ungraded and quality remains traveled from Qutayfah to Dhumair astir each nighttime for much than 2 years.

Witnesses included truckers, mechanics, a bulldozer operator, and a erstwhile serviceman from Assad’s Republican Guard. They vividly recalled the stench and the standard of the operation.

“No 1 would disobey the orders,” said 1 driver. “You yourself mightiness extremity up successful the holes.”By the clip Assad fell precocious past year, each 16 trenches documented astatine Qutayfah had been emptied. At slightest 34 trenches, each astir 2 kilometers long, present beryllium astatine Dhumair, suggesting tens of thousands of bodies could beryllium buried there.

“There is simply a bleeding coiled arsenic agelong arsenic determination are mothers waiting to find the graves of their sons, wives waiting to find the graves of their husbands, and children waiting to find the graves of their fathers,” said Raed al-Saleh, Syria’s Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management.The Qutayfah sedate had been utilized since 2012 to hide soldiers and prisoners who died successful Assad’s prisons and subject hospitals. Its beingness was revealed successful 2014 by a Syrian quality rights activist, and its precise determination aboriginal came to airy done tribunal grounds and media reports.The cognition began successful precocious 2018 erstwhile Assad was nearing triumph successful the civilian war. “The dictator was hoping to regain planetary designation aft being sidelined by years of sanctions and allegations of brutality,” a erstwhile Republican Guard serviceman said.Two truckers and the serviceman said they were told the transportation was meant to wide retired Qutayfah and fell grounds of wide killings.With much than 160,000 radical believed to person disappeared nether Assad, the caller wide graves item 1 of Syria’s astir achy crises.

“Piecing these bodies unneurotic truthful implicit remains tin beryllium returned to families volition beryllium highly complicated,” said Mohamed Al Abdallah, caput of the Syria Justice and Accountability Center.The caller authorities successful Syria has announced plans to make a DNA slope and a integer level for families of the missing, but authorities accidental the fig of victims and the request to rebuild the justness strategy marque the enactment difficult.Reuters has not revealed the nonstop determination of the Dhumair tract to forestall tampering, and a elaborate peculiar study connected the probe volition beryllium released soon.