Today’s news round on Syria: A mass grave near Damascus containing thousands of bodies has been discovered, highlighting the atrocities committed under the Assad regime. As burial sites emerge across Syria, experts warn of the need for professional handling and DNA identification to bring closure to victims’ families. Meanwhile, reports indicate Syria’s new leadership and the Kremlin are in secret negotiations over Russia’s continued military presence in Tartus and Latakia, signalling Moscow’s intent to maintain influence in post-Assad Syria. At the same time, Turkey appears poised for a military incursion into Kurdish-held territory near Kobani, alarming U.S. officials who fear it could destabilize the region and embolden ISIS. Amid these developments, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) pledged to disband rebel factions, integrate fighters into the defense ministry, and maintain Syria’s unity under the law. The fragile landscape leaves Kurdish allies, once central to the fight against ISIS, in a precarious position as competing forces shape the country’s uncertain future.
Mass grave found near Syria’s capital could contain thousands of bodies
A mass grave that could contain the remains of thousands of people has been found outside Syria’s capital Damascus, as the new interim government promises to hold accountable those responsible for atrocities under the ousted President Bashar al-Assad, Al-Jazeera reported.
The site at al-Qutayfah, located 40km (25 miles) north of the capital, was one of several mass graves identified across the country after the collapse of the decades-long rule of the al-Assad family.
Twelve mass graves were also discovered in southern Syria. At one site, 22 bodies, including those of women and children, exhibited signs of execution and torture.
Al-Assad and his father Hafez, who preceded him as president and died in 2000, are accused of killing hundreds of thousands through extrajudicial killings, including in the country’s notorious prison system.
Ugur Umit Ungor, professor of genocide studies at the University of Amsterdam, told Al Jazeera that the discovery of the “centralised mass grave” in al-Qutayfah was “a reflection of the killing machine of the Assad regime”.
“The true scale of exactly how many mass graves are out there is only to be found in the archives of the Assad regime, that’s why it is absolutely crucial that they are handled in a professional way and that people don’t go pillaging them,” he said.
Ungor said creating a DNA depository of the families whose relatives are missing would help match the remains to a name, giving closure to those still looking for their loved ones.
The professor was among a handful of academics who received videos and other evidence from anonymous sources as part of a yearlong investigation into the burial sites.
Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Vall, reporting from Qatana, said the Syrian air force intelligence was believed to have been in charge of transferring the bodies from the hospitals – where they were collected from after having been killed in prison – and taking them to the mass graves.
“These mass graves hold the secrets of 54 years of despotism, torture and dictatorship,” Vall said. “This is only the beginning.”
Syria’s new leaders and the Kremlin are in secret talks
Negotiations between Russia and the new Syrian authorities on the maintenance of two Russian military bases in the Tartus and Latakia regions are continuing at a positive pace, writes the UAE publication The National, citing a source in the “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” group, which controls most of the territory of Syria, News.az reports.
According to the publication’s source, the parties are in the initial stage of negotiations on Russia’s military presence in Syria.
A representative of the Russian armed forces told the publication that the Russian military has good relations with the new Syrian authorities.
“We have contacts and communication with the new head of government, and neither side is provoking the other,” the Russian military said.
In addition, a source in the group told the publication that the new Syrian authorities do not intend to violate the agreement on the lease of the Russian port of Tartus.
Turkish invasion into Syria ‘could be imminent,’ US officials fear – report
The United States is increasingly alarmed that Turkey and its militia allies are preparing for a large-scale military incursion into Syrian territory controlled by US-backed Kurdish forces, according to an exclusive Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday, citing US officials.
The officials cited a significant Turkish military buildup near Kobani, a Kurdish-majority city on the Syria-Turkey border, sparking fears of imminent conflict.
According to US officials cited in the report, the buildup resembled Turkish movements seen ahead of its 2019 invasion of northeast Syria. One US official, speaking to the WSJ, warned that “a cross-border operation could be imminent.”
The officials also emphasized that a new Turkish offensive would deepen instability in the region and undermine efforts to maintain security against Islamic State remnants.
The report detailed the deployment of Turkish uniformed commandos, artillery units, and allied militias to strategic positions along the border.
In response to the escalating situation, Ilham Ahmed, a senior official in the Kurdish civilian administration in Syria, penned a letter to President-elect Donald Trump, urging him to pressure Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to abandon the planned operation.
Ahmed’s letter, obtained by the WSJ, stated that Turkey aimed to seize control of Kurdish territory before Trump’s inauguration, thereby forcing the new administration to recognize Ankara’s authority in the region.
“If Turkey proceeds with its invasion, the consequences will be catastrophic,” Ahmed’s letter was cited as saying, noting that such an operation could displace more than 200,000 Kurdish civilians and threaten Christian communities in the area.
Why America’s Kurdish Allies Are Under Threat in a New Syria
The New York Times reports that Syria’s Kurdish allies, who have long partnered with the United States to fight ISIS, are under significant threat following the collapse of the Assad regime and the end of Syria’s 13-year civil war. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) face increasing pressure from Turkey and Turkish-backed rebels, particularly as Ankara seeks to exploit the political shift in Syria to advance its agenda against the Kurdish minority.
Turkey views the SDF as aligned with the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (P.K.K.), which it considers a terrorist organization. This hostility has translated into Turkish-backed attacks on Kurdish-held territories, threatening the SDF’s ability to secure prisons housing ISIS fighters.
The article highlights the evolving political power balance in Syria, with the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) emerging as a key player and carrying Turkish influence into the new government. Analysts warn that Kurdish control in northeast Syria is increasingly tenuous, and further clashes could erupt, especially in cities like Kobani, a symbolic stronghold for Kurdish forces.
While the Biden administration has been working to prevent conflict through cease-fire agreements, including U.S.-brokered truces, concerns remain that a withdrawal of American troops—a possibility under President-elect Donald Trump—could leave the Kurdish forces isolated. Experts caution that a full-scale Turkish offensive against Kurdish fighters would not only jeopardize U.S. interests but also risk destabilizing the region and enabling a resurgence of ISIS.
The future of Syria’s Kurds remains uncertain as Turkey maneuvers to secure its influence, and U.S. policy decisions in the coming months will play a pivotal role in shaping their fate.
Freed prisoner who said he was a victim of the Assad regime was an intelligence officer, locals say
A man who was filmed by CNN being released by rebels from a Damascus jail was a former intelligence officer with the deposed Syrian regime, according to local residents, and not an ordinary citizen who had been imprisoned, as he had claimed.
CNN initially found the man while pursuing leads on the missing US journalist Austin Tice. In a video report, chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward and her team, accompanied by a rebel guard, came across a cell in a Damascus jail that was padlocked from the outside. The guard blew off the lock with a gun, and the man was found alone inside the cell, under a blanket.
When he emerged into the open air, the man appeared bewildered. Questioned by the rebel fighter who freed him, the man identified himself as Adel Ghurbal from the central Syrian city of Homs.
He claimed that he had been kept in a cell for three months, adding that it was the third prison where he had been confined. The man also said he was not aware that the Assad regime had fallen. He was being held in a jail that had been run by the Syrian air force’s intelligence services until the Assad regime collapsed.
An image obtained by CNN on Monday now points to the man’s real identity – said to be a lieutenant in the Assad regime’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate, Salama Mohammad Salama.
A resident of the Bayada neighborhood in Homs gave CNN a photograph said to be of the same man while he was on duty, in what appears to be a government office. Facial recognition software provided a match of more than 99 percent with the man CNN met in the Damascus prison cell. The photograph shows him sitting at a desk, apparently in military clothing. CNN is not publishing the photo to protect the source’s anonymity.
It’s unclear how or why Salama ended up in the Damascus jail, and CNN has not been able to reestablish contact with him. Over the weekend, Verify-Sy, which says it is a Syrian fact-checking website, was the first to identify the man as Salama. It said that he had been jailed for less than a month because of a dispute over “profit-sharing from extorted funds with a higher-ranking officer.” CNN cannot independently verify this claim.
HTS leader pledges to disband Syrian rebel factions
Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that toppled Syrian president Assad, said all rebel factions would “be disbanded and the fighters trained to join the ranks of the defence ministry” during a meeting with members of the minority Druze community, The Guardian reported.
“All will be subject to the law,” he added, according to posts on the group’s Telegram channel. He also emphasised the need for unity in the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional country.
“Syria must remain united,” he said. “There must be a social contract between the state and all religions to guarantee social justice”.
In a separate meeting with a British delegation, Sharaa, who was formerly known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, also said that international sanctions against Damascus must be lifted if refugees displaced by the war are to return.
He spoke “of the importance of restoring relations” with London, and stressed “the importance of ending all sanctions imposed on Syria so that displaced Syrians … can return to their country”.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
