The Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad was the face of the regime, but he was far from alone. During his two decades in power — and over the course of a 13-year civil war that left half a million people dead — Mr. al-Assad’s many enforcers oversaw the torture of political prisoners. They developed and deployed…
لم يكن هناك مكان في سوريا أكثر رعباً من سجن صيدنايا خلال عقود الحكم الاستبدادي لعائلة الأسد. يقع سجن صيدنايا على تلة قاحلة في ضواحي دمشق العاصمة، وكان في صميم نظام آل الأسد الواسع من سجون التعذيب والاعتقالات التعسفية المستخدم لسحق كل أشكال المعارضة. بحلول نهاية الحرب الأهلية التي استمرت قرابة ١٤ عاماً وانتهت في…
No place in Syria was more feared than Sednaya prison during the Assad family’s decades-long, iron-fisted rule. Situated on a barren hilltop on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital, Sednaya was at the heart of the Assads’ extensive system of torture prisons and arbitrary arrests used to crush all dissent. By the end of the…
The Najha cemetery is about five miles south of Damascus, the capital. It was established decades ago as a modest burial ground for people from Damascus and neighboring towns. Shortly after the crackdown on the Syrian revolution in March 2011, President Bashar al-Assad’s government began using the cemetery to bury people it killed — many…
After one of the most brutal wars of this century, a new Syria is rising from the disastrous legacy of the toppled dictator Bashar al-Assad. His photos have been torn from the walls, as people exercise freedoms denied during his family’s decades-long reign. Now, a different flag flies across Syria, the emblem of the rebels…