Syrian government committed crimes against humanity “on a massive scale” in Daraya, investigation finds

The Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad and its allies committed crimes against humanity and war crimes “on a massive scale” against the population of Daraya, in Damascus, where more than 700 people were killed and buried in improvised mass graves, according to an investigation by the Syrian British Consortium (SBC).

“It marks ten years since Syrian and allied forces launched a planned and coordinated attack, which included 72 hours of door-to-door summary executions, against civilians in Daraya. In just one week, 700 people were killed and hundreds detained or disappeared,” the consortium explained on its official Twitter profile.

In this sense, it has explained that Al Assad’s forces “continue to commit violence and war crimes”, so this investigation “should serve as an urgent appeal to the international community to fulfill its responsibility to protect Syrian civilians.”

In a report of almost 50 pages, the organization explains that the event in this Damascene suburb was “a highly coordinated and systematic attack” in which the government and its allies “committed multiple crimes against humanity and war crimes,” such as killings, imprisonments, forced disappearances, torture or looting.

“Witnesses interviewed in this investigation expressed feeling let down by the international response to the massacre and to the Syrian conflict in general, and stated that they gave their testimony out of a sense of duty, as well as a faint hope that it might
contribute to the achievement of justice,” the report’s conclusions read.

The investigation thus reveals that the government of Bashar al-Assad — including the Fourth Division, the Republican Guard, Air Force Intelligence, as well as state-sponsored militias and Iranian militias — participated in the massacre against the civilian population of the Damascene neighborhood of Daraya.

Assad’s forces shelled entire neighborhoods and deliberately targeted hospitals and schools “with rockets, missiles and mortars, as well as airstrikes with helicopters and warplanes,” the text states, as reported by ‘The Times of Israel’.