Uncovering "Operation Move Earth": How Assad's Regime Secretly Relocated Thousands of Bodies from Syrian Mass Graves

The Assad regime conducted a covert two-year initiative called "Operation Move Earth" from 2019 to 2021.

Dhumair:

A Reuters investigation has discovered that the Assad government orchestrated a secretive two-year operation to transport thousands of bodies from one of Syria's largest known mass graves to an undisclosed location more than an hour away in the isolated desert.

The previously unreported conspiracy by President Bashar al-Assad's military involved excavating the mass grave in Qutayfah and creating an enormous second burial site in the desert outside Dhumair.

To identify the Dhumair grave location and detail this extensive operation, Reuters interviewed 13 individuals with direct knowledge of the two-year body transfer effort, examined documents produced by involved officials, and analyzed hundreds of satellite images of both grave sites taken over several years.

The operation transferring bodies from Qutayfah to another hidden site dozens of kilometers away was named "Operation Move Earth," spanning from 2019 to 2021. According to witnesses, the operation's purpose was to conceal the Assad government's crimes and help rehabilitate its image.

Photo Credit: Reuters

Reuters informed President Ahmed al-Sharaa's government about the investigation findings on Tuesday. The government did not immediately respond to questions regarding this report.

The news agency is withholding the site's exact location to prevent potential tampering with the grave. A forthcoming Reuters special report will detail how the Assad government executed this clandestine operation and how reporters uncovered the scheme.

Reuters has determined that with at least 34 trenches measuring 2 kilometers long, the grave in the Dhumair desert ranks among the most extensive created during the Syrian civil war. Witness accounts and the new site's dimensions suggest tens of thousands of people could be buried there.

Assad's government began burying the dead at Qutayfah around 2012, early in the civil war. According to witnesses, the mass grave contained bodies of soldiers and prisoners who died in the dictator's prisons and military hospitals.

A Syrian human rights activist exposed Qutayfah by releasing photos to local media in 2014, revealing the grave's existence and its general location near Damascus. Its precise location emerged later in court testimony and other media reports.

According to witnesses involved in the operation, six to eight trucks filled with dirt and human remains traveled from Qutayfah to the Dhumair desert site for four nights nearly every week from February 2019 to April 2021. Reuters could not confirm if bodies from elsewhere also arrived at the secret site and found no documentation mentioning Operation Move Earth or mass graves generally.

Everyone directly involved vividly recalled the stench, including two truckers, three mechanics, a bulldozer operator, and a former officer from Assad's elite Republican Guard who participated from the transfer's earliest days.

Former president Assad, currently in Russia, and several military officials identified by witnesses as playing key roles in the operation couldn't be reached for comment. After the dictatorship collapsed late last year, Assad and many aides fled the country.

Photo Credit: Reuters

According to the former Republican Guard officer, the plan to relocate thousands of bodies originated in late 2018 when Assad was nearing victory in Syria's civil war. The dictator hoped to regain international recognition after being marginalized by years of sanctions and brutality allegations. By then, Assad had already been accused of detaining thousands of Syrians, but no independent Syrian groups or international organizations had access to the prisons or mass graves.

Two truckers and the officer told Reuters that military commanders informed them the transfer's purpose was to empty the Qutayfah mass grave and conceal evidence of mass killings.

By Assad's fall, all 16 trenches documented at Qutayfah by Reuters had been emptied.

According to Syrian rights groups, more than 160,000 people disappeared into the deposed dictator's vast security apparatus and are believed buried in dozens of mass graves he created. Organized excavation and DNA analysis could help trace what happened to them, alleviating one of Syria's most painful divisions.

However, with limited resources in Syria, even well-known mass graves remain largely unprotected and unexcavated. The country's new leadership, which overthrew Assad in December, has released no documentation about individuals buried in these graves, despite repeated requests from families of the missing.

Syrian Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management Raed al-Saleh has stated that the overwhelming number of victims and the need to rebuild the justice system impede progress. Syria's new National Commission for Missing People has announced plans to create a DNA bank and a centralized digital platform for families of the missing, acknowledging the urgent need to train specialists in forensic medicine and DNA testing.

"There is a bleeding wound as long as there are mothers waiting to find the graves of their sons, wives waiting to find the graves of their husbands, and children waiting to find the graves of their fathers," al-Saleh told the semi-official Syrian news site al-Watan in late August.

Mohamed Al Abdallah, head of the Syria Justice and Accountability Center, an organization working to trace the missing and investigate war crimes, said a disorganized transfer of bodies like that from Qutayfah to Dhumair was devastating for grieving families.

"Piecing these bodies together so complete remains can be returned to families will be extremely complicated," Al Abdallah remarked after learning of the Reuters findings. He described the establishment of the commission for missing people as a positive step by the new government.

"It has political support, but it still lacks the resources and the experts," he concluded.

Drivers, mechanics, and others involved in the transfer said speaking out during the secret operation would have meant certain death.

"No one would disobey the orders," one driver stated. "You yourself might end up in the holes."