After losing hope of finding his two brothers among those freed from Syrian jails, Ziad Alaywi was filled with dread, knowing there was only one place they were likely to be: a mass grave. “We want to know where our children are, our brothers,” said the 55-year-old standing by a deep trench near Najha, southeast of Damascus. “Were they killed? Are they buried here?” he asked, pointing to the ditch, one of several believed to hold the bodies of prisoners tortured to death. International organisations have called these acts “crimes against humanity”. The fate of tens of thousands of prisoners and missing people remains one of the most harrowing parts of the Syrian conflict, which claimed more than 500,000 lives. Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on December 8, families across Syria have been searching for their loved ones. “I’ve looked for my brothers in all the prisons,” said the driver from the Damascus suburbs, whose siblings and four cousins were arrested over a decade ago. “I’ve searched all the documents that might give me a clue to their location,” he added, but it was all in vain. Residents say there are at least three other similar sites, where diggers were frequently seen working in areas once off-limits under the former government. The dirt at the pit where Alaywi stands looks loose, freshly dug. Children run and play nearby. If the site was investigated, “it would allow many people to have peace of mind and stop hoping for the return of a son who will never return”, he said. “It’s not just one, two, or three people who are being sought. It’s thousands.” He called on international forensic investigators to “open these mass graves so we can finally know where our children are.” Many Syrians who spoke to AFP in recent days expressed disappointment at not finding their loved ones in the prisons opened after the takeover by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). A few kilometres (miles) from Najha, a team of about 10 people, most in white overalls, was transferring small white bags into larger black ones with numbers. Syrian Civil Defence teams have received numerous calls from people claiming to have seen cars dumping bags by the roadside at night. The bags were later found to contain bones. “Since the fall of the regime, we’ve received over 100 calls about mass graves. People believe every military site has one,” said civil defence official Omar al-Salmo.