Syria Denies U.S. Allegations of Using Crematory to Conceal Mass Killings

Concerning satellite images revealed by the U.S. State Department on Monday contain a highly suspected crematorium in a Syrian military prison outside Damascus.

Stuart E. Jones, acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, accused President Bashar Assad’s government of sinking “to a new level of depravity.”

The photographs portray that while nearby buildings in the complex were covered in snow, the building alleged to be the crematory has no snow on top, suggesting a probable high internal heat source. Officials also claimed that a discharge stack and architectural elements, including a firewall and air intake, are structurally consistent with a crematory.

Officials believed that the crematorium was constructed in order to conceal evidence of the thousands of people who are executed at the Sednaya Prison complex, according to Jones. The State Department said approximately 50 detainees are hanged every day at the prison.

Prisoners were once buried in mass graves, but with the growing number of executions, a crematory would dispose of the bodies without leaving evidence.

On Tuesday, Syria rejected the U.S. accusations of the crematory, calling them “lies” and “fabrications.” Syria’s Foreign Ministry said the allegations are a “new Hollywood plot” to justify U.S. intervention in Syria.

“The U.S. administration’s accusations against the Syrian government of a so-called crematorium in Saydnaya prison, in addition to the broken record about the use of barrel bombs and chemical weapons, are categorically false,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Salem Mesket, Syrian opposition spokesman, said the U.S. accusations of the use of a crematory were “credible” and not surprising.

A report by Amnesty International in February said that Syria’s military police hanged approximately 13,000 people in four years before removing the bodies by the truckload to be buried in mass graves. An estimated 400,000 people in total have been killed in Syria and half the population has been displaced due to the 6-year-old civil war.

Al-Hammadi, a spokesman for the Northern Division rebel group, claims that Saydnaya is a “seven-star facility, so you can imagine what happens at the dungeons of security agencies.”

“Satan can take lessons in crime from the regime,” he said. “Regarding cremations, these are usually secret matters but not surprising. They are killing thousands. So how are they going to get rid of their bodies?”

Featured Image via Wikipedia