A shocking investigation by Reuters exposes a two-year secret operation by the Assad government to move thousands of corpses from one of Syria’s largest known mass graves to a secret location more than an hour away in the remote desert.
The conspiracy by President Bashar al-Assad’s military to excavate the mass grave at Qutayfah and create a massive second mass grave in the desert outside Dhumair city had not been known until now. Reuters cites 13 people with direct knowledge of the two-year body transfer effort, examined documents compiled by involved officials, and analyzed hundreds of satellite images of both graves taken over several years.
How thousands of bodies were removed from a known mass grave in Syria during Bashar Assad’s regime and ordered moved to a site deep in the desert to hide the former dictator’s era of atrocities. A Reuters investigation unveils the two-year coverup https://t.co/nFSza25YK8 pic.twitter.com/jG1G5sq1k8
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 15, 2025
Assad regime’s “Operation Move Earth”
The operation to transfer corpses from Qutayfah to another hidden location dozens of kilometers away was called “Operation Move Earth” and lasted from 2019 to 2021. The operation’s purpose was to cover up the Assad government’s crimes and help restore its image, according to witnesses cited by the news agency.
Mass graves in Syria
At Qutayfah, Reuters identified 16 graves ranging from approximately 15 to 160 meters in length. At Dhumair, there were at least 34 graves ranging from approximately 20 to 125 meters in length.
Reuters informed President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government of this investigation’s findings on Tuesday. The government did not immediately respond to questions about this report. The news agency does not reveal the exact location of the site to reduce the likelihood of grave desecration by intruders. An upcoming Reuters special report will detail how the Assad government executed the secret operation and how journalists uncovered the scheme.
Tens of thousands of people likely buried
With at least 34 trenches spanning 2 kilometers, the desert grave at Dhumair is among the largest created during Syria’s civil war, according to Reuters findings. Testimonies and dimensions of the new site suggest tens of thousands of people could be buried there.
Assad’s government began burying the dead at Qutayfah around 2012, in the early stages of the civil war. The mass grave contained corpses of soldiers and prisoners who died in the dictator’s prisons and military hospitals, according to witnesses.
A Syrian human rights activist exposed Qutayfah by publishing photos in local media in 2014, revealing the grave’s existence and general location in Damascus’s outskirts. Its exact location was revealed years later in court testimonies and other media reports.
6-8 trucks transported remains to desert weekly for two years
According to witnesses who participated in the operation, from February 2019 to April 2021, almost every week, six to eight trucks filled with soil and human remains traveled from Qutayfah to the Dhumair desert. Reuters could not confirm whether bodies from other locations also arrived at the secret site and found no documents referring to “Operation Move Earth” or mass graves generally. All those who directly participated in the operation vividly remembered the stench, including two truck drivers, three mechanics, one bulldozer operator, and a former officer from Assad’s elite Republican Guard who participated from the transfer’s early days.
Former President Assad, who is in Russia, and several military officials who witnesses say played key roles in the operation were unavailable for comment. After his regime’s fall in late last year, Assad and many of his associates left the country.
When and why Assad conceived moving thousands of corpses
The idea of moving thousands of corpses emerged in late 2018, when Assad was on the verge of victory in Syria’s civil war, according to the former Republican Guard officer. Assad hoped to regain international recognition after years of sanctions and accusations of violence, the officer said. At that time, Assad had already been accused of imprisoning thousands of Syrians. However, no independent Syrian group or international organization had access to prisons or mass graves.
Two truck drivers and the officer told Reuters that military commanders told them the transfer’s purpose was to clean the Qutayfah mass grave and hide evidence of mass killings. When Assad fell, all 16 pits Reuters had documented at Qutayfah had been emptied.
Over 160,000 people disappeared – “You could end up in the pits too”
More than 160,000 people disappeared within the overthrown dictator’s massive security apparatus and are believed buried in dozens of mass graves he created, according to Syrian human rights organizations. Organized excavation and DNA analysis could help discover what happened to them, easing one of Syria’s most painful wounds.
However, with Syria’s limited resources, even known mass graves are largely unprotected and unexplored. The country’s new leaders, who overthrew Assad in December, have not published any documents about people buried in them, despite repeated appeals from missing persons’ families.
Syria’s Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management, Raed al-Saleh, said the massive number of victims and the need to rebuild the judicial system impede this work. Syria’s new National Committee for the Missing announced plans to create a DNA bank and central digital platform for missing persons’ families, stating there is urgent need to train forensic and DNA testing specialists.
“There is a bleeding wound as long as there are mothers waiting to find their sons’ graves, wives waiting to find their husbands’ graves, and children waiting to find their fathers’ graves,” al-Saleh told the semi-official Syrian news website al-Watan in late August.
Mohamed Al Abdallah, head of the Syrian Center for Justice and Accountability, a Syrian organization dealing with locating missing persons and investigating war crimes, said the random transfer of corpses, like that from Qutayfah to Dhumair, was catastrophic for grieving families.
“Reassembling these corpses to return them to families will be extremely complex,” Al Abdallah said after being briefed on Reuters’ findings. He described establishing the missing persons committee as a positive step by the new government.
“It has political support, but still lacks resources and experts,” he said.
Drivers, mechanics and others who participated in the transfer said speaking out during the secret operation meant certain death. “No one would disobey orders,” one driver told the agency. “You could end up in the pits too.”
Source: Reuters
