Discovery of Unknown Bodies in a Drug Warehouse Near the 'Sayyida Zainab Shrine' in the Suburbs of Damascus

A Syrian civil defense official known as the 'White Helmets' reported on Wednesday, December 19, that rescuers from this group found unknown bodies in a drug warehouse in the suburbs of Damascus, 10 days after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. The French news agency described the location of the discovered bodies as 'a warehouse full of medicine boxes' located 50 meters from the 'Sayyida Zainab Shrine,' a sacred site for Shia Muslims and the burial place of the daughter of the first Shia Imam. The Sayyida Zainab suburb in southern Damascus was previously a base for pro-Islamic Republic fighters, including the Hezbollah militia from Lebanon, before the capital was captured by opposition forces. Ammar al-Salmo, the head of the White Helmets, explained to the French news agency about the discovery of these bodies and the drug warehouse: 'We received a report about the presence of bodies, bones, and a foul smell at the site. We went to the location and found a room in the warehouse containing decomposing bodies. Human bones were also scattered on the ground, estimated to belong to about 20 victims.' Ammar al-Salmo added, 'After retrieving these bodies, we are currently estimating and conducting DNA tests to identify the remains and return them to their families.' Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria on December 9, many mass graves have been discovered in the country, but the fate of tens of thousands of prisoners and missing persons remains unknown. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated in 2022 that over 100,000 people have died in Bashar al-Assad's prisons, mainly due to torture, since the start of the civil war in 2011.