Gruesome discoveries: Human remains found in  Damascus basements 

Three months after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, rescue workers in Syria have discovered human remains in the basements of homes in Damascus’s Sabina neighborhood, shedding light on the lingering aftermath of the country’s 14-year civil war. The findings, documented by teams sifting through ash and bone fragments, highlight the monumental task of identifying victims amid Syria’s economic ruin and fractured infrastructure.

In one Sabina basement, workers encountered severely burned bones, making it difficult to estimate the number of individuals present. “Could there have been 20 here? More?” one rescuer wondered aloud. A small skull among the remains prompted speculation that entire families might be among the victims. Once labeled a “security zone” in 2011 by the Assad government, Sabina was sealed off and largely abandoned as loyalist forces took control. Nearby residents recall hundreds vanishing after attempting to flee through the area during the conflict.

Families who returned to the neighborhood after 2015 found the remains but refrained from reporting them. “If we had spoken up, they’d have accused us of the killings,” one homeowner explained, reflecting the pervasive fear under Assad’s rule. The former regime operated a vast prison network where tens of thousands are believed to have been executed, according to human rights monitors.

The Syrian Agency for Human Rights estimates that at least 100,000 people disappeared into detention centers, though the true figure may be higher. In Sabina alone, the “White Helmets,” a civil defense group, extracted around 50 bodies from three basements, with seven additional sites still unexplored. Similar discoveries—of remains in sewers and wells—have surfaced across Syria, compounding the recovery effort.

Identifying the dead poses a steep challenge. Syria’s economy, battered by years of war, lacks the resources for large-scale forensic analysis. Workers, wearing masks and gloves, collect fragments in cardboard boxes for potential DNA testing, but experts say the process could take years given the remains’ poor condition.

The Sabina discoveries underscore Syria’s broader struggle to reckon with its past as it navigates an uncertain future. With limited means and a fragmented system, the country faces an uphill battle to document its losses and provide closure to countless families.

Channel 12 contributed to this article.