U.S.: Syria Using Crematorium to Hide Executions

According to the U.S. Department of State, the Syrian government has been using a crematorium to secretly dispose of thousands of prisoners it has executed inside a military prison near Damascus. At least 50 prisoners are executed daily at the prison facility, said Stuart Jones, the acting assistant secretary of state for the Middle East region. Jones lamented that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad carries out these mass executions “seemingly with the unconditional support from Russia and Iran,” The Washington Post reported, and indicated that the information about this military prison came from human-rights organizations, non-governmental sources, and “intelligence assessments.”