Syria butcher ‘burns victims in ovens’
SYRIAN tyrant Bashar Assad has built a crematorium to burn the corpses of thousands of his victims, America claimed yesterday.
The State Department in Washington released satellite photos they said showed the crematorium at Saydnaya military prison north of capital Damascus.
They said it was built in 2013 to burn the bodies of the thousands of opposition supporters murdered at the jail by Assad’s security forces.
The State Department said they believed about 50 detainees are hanged at Saydnaya every day.
Amnesty International believe up to 13,000 people were murdered at Saydnaya over five years – many after being tortured.
They said the killings were authorised at the highest level of Assad’s regime. He denies the claims.
Amnesty believe between 10,000 and 20,000 people are still held at Saydnaya.
The Americans released the new data in a bid to put pressure on Assad’s main allies, Russia and Iran, to rein in the regime.
The US Acting Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, Stuart Jones, said the documents “underscore the depths to which the Syrian regime has gone, with the continuing support of its allies, Russia and Iran”.
Donald Trump visits the Middle East this week in his first official foreign trip as president.