US accuses Syria of mass executions, disposing of bodies in a crematorium

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday accuses the Syrian government of carrying out mass killings of thousands of prisoners and burning the bodies in a large crematorium outside the capital.

The State Department says it believes that about 50 detainees a day are being hanged at Saydnaya military prison, about 45 minutes from Damascus. Many of the bodies, it says, are then being burned in the crematorium.

“We believe that the building of a crematorium is an effort to cover up the extent of mass murders taking place in Saydnaya prison,” says Stuart Jones, the top US diplomat for the Middle East.

The department releases commercial satellite photographs showing what it says is a building in the prison complex that has been modified to support the crematorium. The photographs taken over the course of several years, beginning in 2013, do not definitely prove the building is a crematorium, but they show construction consistent with such use. One photograph taken in January 2015 shows one area of the building’s roof cleared of snow due to melt.

In presenting the photographs, Jones says Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government “has sunk to a new level of depravity” with the support of Russia and Iran, and calls on both countries to use their influence with Syria to establish a credible ceasefire and begin political talks.

— AP