Is Syria Using A Crematorium To Dispose of Prisoners?

"Credible sources have believed that numerous bodies have been disposed of in mass graves".

"We believe that the building of a crematorium is an effort to cover up the extent of mass murders taking place in Saydnaya prison", said Stuart Jones, the top USA diplomatic for the Middle East.

"Although the regime's many atrocities are well-documented", Jones continued, "we believe that the building of a crematorium is an effort to cover up the extent of mass murders taking place in Saydnaya prison". Jones said the Syrian regime is believed to have detained between 65,000 and 117,000 people since the war began in 2011 and until 2015.

The unusually direct and graphic State Department case laying out the horrors committed by the Syrian regime was meant to bolster Washington's appeal to the Assad regime's chief foreign sponsors to use their influence to rein him in, officials and experts said. The "newly-declassified" information and claims of additional crimes by President Bashar al-Assad's regime comes from "intelligence community assessments" and from other non-governmental organizations like the media and Amnesty International.

The executions were carried out "seemingly with the unconditional support of Russian Federation and Iran", Jones said adding that the US does not believe Russian Federation or Iran are involved with the crematorium. Neither government commented on the new US allegation.

Indeed, State Department officials conceded that the whole reason they came up with this new statement was because Russia's Foreign Minister visited the USA last week, and the U.S. wanted to reiterate that there needs to be a regime change in Syria, despite Russian opposition.

The Foreign Ministry in Damascus describes the U.S. State Department accusations as "a new Hollywood plot" and "lies" that are being used to justify U.S. "aggression and intervention".

Jones showed a series of aerial photos taken from 2013 to 2017 that he said showed the construction of a crematorium beside the infamous prison.

Those photos do not definitely prove the building is a crematorium, but they show construction consistent with such use.

In a photo taken January 15, he said, "we're look [ing] at snowmelt on the roof that would be consistent with a crematorium".

It's not clear why the U.S. has waited until now to release this information, but Jones told reporters: "I would say that this information has been developing".

The United States accused Syria on Monday of executing thousands of imprisoned political opponents and burning their bodies in a crematorium to hide the evidence.

But Tillerson, he said, "was firm and clear with Minister Lavrov".

The allegation could test the Trump administration's willingness to respond to atrocities, other than chemical weapons attacks, that it blames on President Bashar Assad's government. "A key point that took place in that bilateral meeting was telling Russian Federation to use its power to rein in the regime". "And Russia must bear responsibility to ensure regime compliance".

Jones called Tillerson's meeting with Lavrov "productive".

Moreover Jones called on Russian Federation and Iran, whom he described as Assad's "closest allies", to "press for an end to these murderous detention policies".

Prisoners are held in a network of prisons across Syria.

The revelations echoed a February report by Amnesty International that said Syria's military police hanged as many as 13,000 people in four years before carting out bodies by the truckload for burial in mass graves. In February an Amnesty global report detailed abysmal conditions for convicts.

Jones, who had to pause several times during the briefing, said Russian Federation had to use its influence over the Assad regime to halt the atrocities and attacks on civilians that have killed the vast majority of the more than 400,000 people estimated to have been killed in six years of war. The Trump administration says there have been mass executions of prisoners.