MADRID, 20 (EUROPA PRESS)
Authorities in the Latakia Governorate in western Syria announced Tuesday the discovery of a mass grave containing the bodies of nine people on a farm owned by a brigadier general during the presidency of Bashar al-Assad. This adds to the 63 other graves documented so far by the commission for missing persons in Syria.
The internal security commander of this coastal province, General Abdulaziz Hilal al Ahmad, indicated in a statement that the mass grave was discovered in the vicinity of Bustan al Basha, a municipality located north of the city of Jableh, where civil defense teams have recovered up to nine bodies, while investigators have begun documenting evidence and gathering information to carry out the identification of the bodies and clarify the facts.
The Syrian Commission for Missing Persons estimated this week that more than 300,000 people have disappeared since the 1970s, when the Assad family took power, until the present day, when the country's authorities established a transitional justice system.
Its president, Mohamed Rada Jalkhani, also revealed to the SANA news agency that the organization currently has a map containing more than 63 documented mass graves, although information about other locations that have not yet been verified arrives almost daily.
In the case of Latakia, it is worth recalling the massacres committed earlier this year, in which some 1,400 civilians died. A United Nations commission has accused forces linked to the new government and other related groups of committing war crimes against the Alawite community, to which ousted President Al Assad belongs.
