An investigation by human rights organizations reveals mass graves at the Mezzeh military airport.

The Syrian Center for Justice and Accountability, in collaboration with the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Sednaya Prison, has released an investigative report on the use of Mezzeh Military Airport for torturing and hiding Syrians at the airport during the conflict after 2011.

According to the report, over 1000 Syrians died while detained at Mezzeh Military Airport, through various means including execution, death under torture, or mistreatment.

The report traces the deaths to 7 suspected mass grave sites linked to the airport, with the Syrian Center for Justice and Accountability identifying time periods where 3 of them were likely used for burying detainees.

The Center, based on the report, identified the grave sites through witness testimonies, satellite images, and documents that became available after the fall of the previous regime in December 8, 2024, in Mezzeh and other facilities managed by the air intelligence and former government entities involved in transporting detainees and human remains. Some sites were located on the airport grounds, while others were scattered around Damascus, including a cemetery in Najha.

According to Reuters, Shadi Haroun, a report contributor and former prisoner detained for several months between 2011 and 2012 on charges of organizing protests, stated that he was forced to make baseless confessions under the pressure of daily interrogations and physical and psychological torture.

Describing the suffering of a fellow inmate, Haroun said, "A small wound on the foot of one detainee resulting from beatings with a whip received during torture was left unsterilized or treated for several days, gradually turning into gangrene and worsening until the foot was amputated entirely."

Organizations did not rely solely on obtained documents, conducting interviews with 156 survivors who all experienced torture according to the report, as well as 8 members of the air intelligence, including testimonies detailing events up to the regime's collapse.

The Interior Minister mentioned that this discovery did not come as a surprise, noting that over 100,000 missing individuals in Assad's prisons did not emerge during the early days of liberation in early December.

The Syrian Center for Justice and Accountability estimates that the total number of detainees killed at Mezzeh Military Airport reached 1154 detainees between 2011 and 2017, according to two intelligence datasets leaked on a Facebook group monitored and verified by the organization since the previous regime's collapse.

The estimate does not include individuals executed by a field military court held inside a barn, where officers and soldiers were reportedly shot, while civilians were hanged, according to testimonies.

One of the final conclusions of the report is that Mezzeh Military Airport became part of the enforced disappearance system expanded by the regime after 2011, with over 28,000 people believed to have been detained at the airport during the conflict.

Mohammad Abdullah, the Executive Director of the Syrian Center for Justice and Accountability (SJAC), a US-based human rights organization led by Syrians and funded by European governments until its recent funding freeze by the Trump administration, confirmed on his personal Facebook account the investigation published by the Center in collaboration with the Association of Sednaya Prison Detainees, which was also reported by Reuters, in response to doubts raised by some sites and pages about the narrative, out of consideration for the families of detainees and the accuracy of information.

Abdullah noted that the investigation had been ongoing for a full year before the regime's fall, and these details were confirmed after reviewing satellite images and documents at Mezzeh Military Airport following the regime's collapse.