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

Oct 19, 2025 11:25 am CST

A groundbreaking Reuters investigation reveals how Bashar al-Assad's regime conducted a secret two-year operation called "Operation Move Earth" to relocate thousands of bodies from a major mass grave near Damascus to a remote desert location. The covert mission, carried out between 2019-2021, aimed to conceal evidence of atrocities as Assad sought to rehabilitate his international image. With at least 34 trenches stretching 2 kilometers, the newly discovered Dhumair grave site may contain tens of thousands of bodies, representing one of the largest undocumented mass graves from Syria's civil war.