On Saturday (March 28th), residents of the city of al-Shaddadi in the southern countryside of al-Hasakah discovered a mass grave near what is known as "Chinese Camp" east of the city, a site that was previously used as a military headquarters and training center for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in addition to being a prison for detainees suspected of belonging to the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS).
The initial examination showed the remains of nine people inside the cemetery, whose identities could not be identified due to the near-complete decomposition of the bodies, complicating efforts to identify the victims and determine the circumstances of their deaths.
Residents of the area said the site had been a detention centre in recent years, and local testimonies circulated accounts of abuses by detainees inside, including torture, raising fears that there may be other unidentified victims.
This discovery comes about two months after the SDF withdrew from Al-Shaddadi on January 19, 2026, in conjunction with the advance of the Syrian army forces and their control over the city, which reopened the files of missing persons and former detainees, amid local demands to reveal the truth about what happened inside the detention centers.
For its part, the Al-Hasakah Media Directorate said that the information available so far is incomplete, stressing that the competent authorities have started investigation procedures and work to identify the victims, provided that official clarifications will be published as soon as confirmed results are available.