2,800+ bodies found in mass graves across Syria, monitor says
Shafaq News – Damascus
At least 50 mass graves holding the remains of 2,865 people have been uncovered across Syria over the past year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Sunday.
The UK-based monitoring group said the graves were discovered in multiple provinces, including Damascus, Homs, Daraa, Hama, Deir Ez-Zor, Idlib and Aleppo, as access widened to areas that had been difficult to reach during the conflict.
According to SOHR, the remains include men, women and children who were killed or forcibly disappeared during Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011. Some bodies showed signs consistent with execution or death in detention, while others were buried without identification.
Damascus and Homs accounted for the largest concentrations, the Observatory said, noting that both cities hosted major security facilities, detention centers, and military hospitals during the war.
SOHR called on the UN Human Rights Council and other international mechanisms to secure burial sites as potential evidence, open independent investigations, and establish a process to identify victims and return remains to their families.
#المرصد_السوريخلال عام 2025.. اكتشاف 50 مقبرة تضم رفات 2865 ضحـ ـيـ ـة قضوا على يد النظام البائدhttps://t.co/ypflKLJqu4
— المرصد السوري لحقوق الإنسان (@syriahr) December 21, 2025
The discoveries come as Syrian and international bodies intensify efforts to address the fate of the missing. Earlier this year, Syria’s Commission for the Missing said it had documented dozens of mass graves nationwide and estimated that between 120,000 and 300,000 people remain unaccounted for. Authorities also launched a national platform aimed at registering missing persons and coordinating identification efforts.
Separate documentation by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria has recorded widespread enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, and deaths in custody during the conflict, attributing primary responsibility to Syrian government authorities while also citing abuses by other parties.
