On Wednesday, June 11, 2025, local residents found the remains of at least 11 people inside an abandoned water well near a house in the village of Al-Talisiyyah in the eastern Hama countryside. The remains belonged to civilians killed during the 2012 takeover of the village by Bashar al-Assad regime forces.
According to information obtained by the Syrian Network for Human Rights from reliable local sources, civilians who had recently returned to their homes in the village of Al-Talisiyeh, while attempting to rehabilitate an old water well, discovered the remains of people who had gone missing after Bashar al-Assad’s regime took control of the area in 2012. The locals worked to recover the remains and transport them to another location for burial.
According to sources, it was found that a number of the remains belonged to missing civilians from the villages of Khafsin and Karaah in the eastern Hama countryside. According to field reports, these civilians had been arrested by militias and forces loyal to the Bashar al-Assad regime in the village of Ma’an and transferred to the village of al-Talisiyya under circumstances indicating that they were summarily executed. They were likely killed on June 3, 2012.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights notes that the issue of mass graves in Syria is one of the most complex human rights issues, with tens of thousands of families still unaware of the fate of their relatives who were forcibly disappeared during the years of armed conflict.
Legal Conclusions
- The presence of the remains of individuals believed to be civilians killed during the armed conflict indicates the possibility of extrajudicial killings or mass executions, which constitute crimes against humanity.
- Any tampering with the site or unlawful burial of victims constitutes the destruction of forensic evidence related to serious international crimes, threatening the right to truth and obstructing access to justice and redress.
Recommendations by SNHR
- Immediately freeze the site as an international crime scene, and prevent any tampering with criminal evidence by any party until the arrival of specialized forensic teams and international criminal investigations.
- Involve Syrian civil society, families of missing persons, and victims in investigation and documentation mechanisms, and provide psychological and legal support to families as soon as victims’ identities are identified.
- Launch a unified national and international database for missing persons, with the aim of matching DNA with victims and helping thousands of families learn the fate of their relatives, as a central step in the transitional justice process.
