Syrians scour disfigured corpses for signs of detained loved ones

At least 35 corpses found in prison north of Damascus, while Syrians brave morgue to search for missing loved ones

A man reacts as people look at bodies, believed to be of prisoners from Sednaya prison, according to forensic official Zaher al-Taqesh, at the Al Mojtahed hospital, after rebels seized the capital and ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria December 10, 2024. REUTERS

Using only the light on their mobile phones, wailing men and women examined disfigured bodies lying in a darkened hospital morgue in Syria's capital for signs of their relatives who had disappeared into Bashar al-Assad's notorious prison system.

Dozens of corpses - blackened, decomposing and missing limbs or heads - were found overnight by rescuers digging for hidden cells at Sednaya, a prison north of Damascus, where rights groups said torture and mass executions had been common.

After Assad was toppled on Sunday, people rushed to Sednaya and freed several hundred detainees clinging on to life.

Rescuers then began a hunt for any underground cells where more could still be languishing, with thousands of relatives staying at the prison overnight in the hopes their loved ones could be found.

No more were left found alive and no underground cells were found, the rescue workers said in a statement late on Monday. But at least 35 corpses exhibiting signs of torture were found and brought to the Damascus Hospital on Tuesday, said Ahmad Shouman, a local official.

"They're disfigured. Cut up. We can't tell who is who," he told Reuters at the hospital morgue, affected, like much of Damascus, by power outages caused by the fight for the capital.

All around him, people were either screaming or covering their noses from the stench. "Look, his right hand is gone!" one man shouted as he looked into a bag. "What did all these people do wrong to die?" another wailed. A woman cried, dug her finger into her face and slapped her own cheeks.

Rima al-Turk was still searching for her brother Adnan, who was taken in 2013 by Syria's Air Force Intelligence Branch from outside their family's front door. She said he had done nothing wrong.

"They're all burnt corpses now. Corpses with their heads cut off. That was the regime that was ruling us," she said.

Zaher al-Taqesh, a mortician, said doctors and specialists were working to help families identify their loved ones.

"There are distinguishing features - like a tattoo, a wound, any distinguishing sign," said Taqesh. Others could be identified by their teeth, but more specialists were needed to continue the identification work, he said.

Other bodies had been found elsewhere in the city. A member of the Emergency Response team associated with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel group told Reuters that bodies had been found at the Harasta Hospital, also exhibiting signs of torture.

The Syria Campaign, an activist collective that advocates for civic rights issues in Syria, called on Monday for international organisations to better support families now learning that their loved ones had been killed in detention.

Those who found relatives at the morgue on Tuesday were relieved they could bury them - but enraged at those responsible for the brutal deaths.

"May God take his revenge on them," one distraught man said.