Residents of the Tadamon neighborhood in southern Damascus discovered a new mass grave on Monday in the Al-Shuhada area, also known as Al-Sulaykha, bringing the number of mass graves found in the neighborhood to eight.
The discovery came a day after Syria's Justice Ministry referred the case of Amjad Youssef, known as the "Butcher of Tadamon," to an investigating judge ahead of his trial.
The newly discovered grave contained the remains of more than five victims, according to the Tadamon Neighborhood Coordination Committee, which said search operations were continuing with the assistance of Civil Defense teams and the National Commission for the Missing.
It is the eighth mass grave discovered in the same area.
The neighborhood coordination committee has been documenting suspected mass grave sites throughout Tadamon through video footage and eyewitness accounts.
In a video released by the committee, a local resident said children had discovered human bones at the site.
Another resident appealed to the relevant authorities to survey the entire area, recover the remains and preserve them properly, ensuring that the families of missing people have access to evidence that could help establish the fate of their loved ones.
"Every time someone starts laying the foundations for a house, they find human bones," he said.
The Interior Ministry's Counterterrorism Department referred the case of Amjad Youssef, the principal suspect in the Tadamon massacres, to the Office of the Prosecutor General for transfer to an investigating judge.
The referral is intended to initiate public prosecution proceedings against Youssef and his alleged accomplices based on the evidence and investigative findings submitted by the authorities.
In a statement issued upon receiving the case file, the Justice Ministry reaffirmed its determination to pursue accountability, prevent impunity and deliver justice to victims of crimes committed against the Syrian people, in accordance with the law and the principles of transitional justice.
The move followed the conclusion of preliminary investigations into Youssef, the main suspect in the massacres committed in 2013.
The Syrian Justice Ministry announced that the case had been referred to the Prosecutor General as a step toward bringing him to trial under the country's transitional justice process.
Syrian internal security forces arrested Youssef in April 2026 during an operation in the Hama countryside.
Youssef, a former warrant officer with Branch 227 of the Assad regime's Military Intelligence Directorate, was detained along with several members of his security unit and people close to him as part of the investigation.
The Interior Ministry subsequently released video footage of his confessions, in which he admitted to killing dozens of civilians in cold blood and burning their bodies in a pit in the Tadamon neighborhood in 2013, without having received direct orders.
Conflicting Death Tolls
Estimates of the number of victims killed in the Tadamon massacres vary considerably.
Some estimates put the death toll at 280, while testimonies from neighborhood residents suggest that several thousand people may have been killed.
The uncertainty reflects the large number of people who disappeared in the area and the discovery of numerous pits and sites containing the remains of victims of the 2013 massacres, which took place within a residential block that was under construction.
The case of Amjad Youssef, dubbed the "Butcher of Tadamon," has emerged as one of the most prominent cases pursued over the past year under Syria's transitional justice process.
It concerns one of the most horrific atrocities documented in video and audio recordings, filmed by the perpetrators themselves as a display of pride in what they portrayed as their "heroic" actions.
The Tadamon massacres are also closely connected to broader efforts to determine the fate of thousands of missing and forcibly disappeared people in Damascus during the early years of the uprising against Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Among them are the six children of Dr. Rania al-Abbasi and her husband, Dr. Abdul Rahman, who have been missing since 2013.
According to the Interior Ministry, investigations involving detainees in the Youssef case uncovered evidence indicating his involvement in the killing of the couple's six children.
In May 2026, Syria's National Commission for the Missing announced that it had reached reliable findings establishing, with a high degree of professional certainty, that the children had been killed.
The fate of their parents, however, remained unknown.
In August 2026, the commission also announced that it had established the fate of Bassam Bahra and his son, Samih Bahra, 13 years after their disappearance in Damascus.
It said the two had been killed in the Tadamon neighborhood by a group led by Youssef and his accomplice Kamel Abbas.
The Tadamon massacre first drew international attention following an investigation published by The Guardian on April 27, 2022.
The investigation exposed a massacre carried out by forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad's regime on April 16, 2013, in which approximately 41 people were killed and buried in a mass grave in the Tadamon neighborhood.
The report included video footage showing Youssef, a noncommissioned officer serving with Branch 227 of the Military Intelligence Directorate, forcing dozens of blindfolded civilians of different ages toward a large, deep pit alongside other perpetrators.
The victims were shot as they fell into the pit, after which their bodies were set on fire.
Media reports have indicated that 27 videos documenting the Tadamon massacre are held in Britain, with only one having been made public.
Abdul Moneim Zain Al-Din, described as the general coordinator of the Syrian revolution, previously cited that figure and called for the release of the remaining recordings.
