A defected member of Assad’s security apparatus has recounted more horrifying testimonies of the Assad regime’s killing of detainees by torture. The former recruit, interviewed by Al Jazeera TV channel, says he served at the Al Mazzah military hospital (601) in Damascus.
The first group of the bodies arrived at Al Mazzah military hospital with the start of the Syrian revolution four years ago. 45 bodies came from Dara’a province which saw the first anti-regime demonstrations.
“With increasing number of bodies arriving at the hospital beyond the capacity of the morgue, the hospital’s staff were forced to throw the bodies into a yard adjacent to the hospital. Loaded trucks with detainees’ bodies arrived at the yard after and dumped after members of security forces wrote the number of the security branch and the detainee number on the victim’s forehead.”
“Up to 80 bodies were brought in daily while a coroner would examine the bodies and assign each one a number. Bodies were left lying on the ground for up to three days, sometimes 200 bodies were piled up before they were loaded, making them prone to gnawing by dogs, cats, and rats.”
“Bodies were stacked on each other like wood sticks inside a truck, with many of them bearing signs of severe torture, beatings, electrocution, scabies, and emaciation. The ages of the majority of the victims were between 10 and 70 years old.
“We heard reports that the bodies were cremated in a furnace under the supervision of Iranian individuals in Harasta Hospital in Rural Damascus, or buried in mass graves. One of comrades tried to defect but was arrested and then returned a lifeless corpse.” (Source: Syrian Coalition + Al Jazeera)
