The Audio Long Read ‘We were forced to burn bodies’: will survivors of the Tadamon massacres see justice?
Jan 23, 2026
The podcast dives into the grim history of Tadamon, where residents recall a chilling burning smell during the war. It reveals horrific footage of executions and the identification of a shooter linked to Assad's regime. Survivors share harrowing tales of mass graves and torture sites, shedding light on ethnic cleansing. There's a surprising turn of reconciliation after Assad's fall, but tensions simmer as former regime figures like Fadi Sakhar work with the new government, igniting community outrage and fears of renewed violence.
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Video Revealed Mass Executions
- Abu Muhammad and others recognized a 2013 video showing soldiers executing civilians and burning the bodies in Tadamon.
- The footage was part of a larger leak documenting dozens of killings and identified a main shooter, Amjad Yusuf, who later boasted of his deeds.
Neighborhood Became A Killing Field
- Residents describe repeated minibuses, checkpoints and the recurring smell of burning bodies from late 2012 to at least 2015.
- On-site searches found mass graves, bones, and buildings used as execution and disposal sites across a large ruined area.
Forced To Burn Bodies
- Ahmed recounts being seized by NDF members and forced, with other boys, to move and burn bodies in Tadamon.
- He describes stacking corpses in a building, sealing it and setting it on fire, leaving him traumatised and unable to speak for years.