Massacre

The Story Behind this Graphic Syrian Photo

I'll put the photo below the "read more" because of its graphic nature, but you might remember the discovery of bodies in a Syrian canal back in January. The Guardian attempts to piece together how this massacre came to fruition:

There are no women on the grisly slideshow of dead men that is replayed in melancholy slow motion every time a relative arrives. Nor are there more than a handful of males aged over 30. Most of the dead dragged from Aleppo’s Queiq River were men of working age.

Another thread strongly unites the fate of the river massacre victims; each of them had either been in the west of the city, or had been trying to get there. They had to pass though checkpoints run by the Syrian army, or their proxy militia, the Shabiha. The process involved handing over identification papers that detailed in which area of the city the holder of the papers lived.

In mid-February, the Guardian interviewed 11 family members of massacre victims in the Bustan al-Qasr area, who all confirmed that their dead relatives had vanished in regime areas, or had been trying to reach them. Two other men who had been arrested at regime checkpoints and later freed were also interviewed. Both alleged that mass killings had taken place in the security prisons in which they had been held. They identified the prisons as Air Force intelligence and Military Security — two of the most infamous state security facilities in Syria.

"If they took you to the park, you were finished," said one of the men, who had been freed in mid-January. "We all knew that. It is a miracle that I am standing here talking to you."

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Justin Green

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