Mass graves have been discovered near Damascus, Syria.

Rapp made a statement following his visit to mass graves in the suburbs of Damascus – Kutaifa and Najha. "We have not seen anything like this since the Nazis. This is a system of state terror. We are talking about a system of state terror," he noted in a conversation with Reuters.

Rapp is working on documenting evidence of war crimes for potential future trials.

According to human rights advocate Moaz Mustafa, who heads the U.S.-based Syrian Emergency Task Force, at least 100,000 bodies have been buried in Kutaifa alone.

The International Commission in The Hague on missing persons reported 66 unverified mass burial sites in Syria. The commission states that 157,000 people are considered missing.

The commission urged the protection of burial sites to preserve evidence, but it has been noted that they remain easily accessible.

Residents of Kutaifa and Najha told Reuters that they saw trucks regularly delivering bodies and dumping them into trenches dug by bulldozers. "This place is a horror," said one eyewitness to reporters.

According to satellite images, extensive earthworks in Kutaifa took place from 2012 to 2022. The footage shows excavators, trucks, and long trenches.

Bashar Assad has led Syria for 24 years. On December 8, amid the advance of anti-government groups on the positions of the government army, he fled to Russia, where he was granted asylum. Assad has categorically denied all allegations of human rights violations.

More news from Radio Free Europe: