Prisoners freed Joy and grief as families reunite with 'disappeared'

As Syrian rebels led by the Islamist group Hayat al-Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured city after city on the road to Damascus, forcing Bashar al-Assad to flee the country, they also opened the doors of the regime's notorious prisons, into which upwards of 100,000 people disappeared during nearly 14 years of civil war.

- Bethan McKernan

Many emerged appearing frail in the bright December sunlight, greeted by weeping family members who had no idea they were still alive. Some struggled to comprehend that Assad was gone; a few who had been held even longer had never even been told that he had succeeded his father, Hafez, who died in 2000.

Verified videos from Damascus showed dozens of women and small children being held in cells, with the rebels opening the doors telling them not to be afraid.

The prisons, infamous for torture in and around Damascus itself—including Sednaya, the most notorious, where satellite imagery showed a new crematorium was built in 2017 to dispose of bodies—were broken open early yesterday. There are conflicting reports of underground cell blocks yet to be reached.