Syrian Troops Burned Opposition Fighters’ Bodies To Prevent Identification, NGO Says

Syrian government forces have burned the bodies of opposition fighters and civilians since the start of the civil war in the country in 2011, a human rights group is alleging. The Washington-based Syrian Center for Justice and Accountability released a report over the weekend which documents, using videos from as early as 2012 and 2012, bodies being burned in order to make them unidentifiable and then transferred to mass graves in Daraa in the south of Syria. Videos obtained by the center show the Military Intelligence branch in Al-Masmiyah, in Daraa, as well as members of the 9th Division’s 34th Armored Brigade disposing of the bodies of opposition fighters after documenting their identities. The government troops reportedly are seen pouring gasoline over the dead fighters’ faces and hands in order to make it very difficult, if not impossible to identify them later. The troops were ordered to do so by their superiors, according to the report. “While this is the first time that documentation of such processes has been made public, the systematic, careful nature through which the perpetrators destroy the bodies, along with the presence of high-ranking officials, suggest that this may reflect a broader practice of the Syrian government to destroy evidence of their crimes and deny the families of their victims their right to know the fates of their loved ones or receive their remains,” the center said in the report.