FRONTLINE investigates the Assad regime’s arrest, torture and execution of detainees during the Syrian war. Former prisoners, guards, soldiers and intelligence officials shed new light on atrocities carried out during Bashar al-Assad’s reign.
After the fall of the Assad regime, Syrians reckon with the devastating human toll of the war from hundreds of thousands killed to thousands still missing. A look at the figures that underscore the losses Syrians have endured.
Bashar al-Assad’s regime detained more than a million people during the Syrian war. Saydnaya was the regime’s most notorious prison. In a video drawn from the documentary ‘Syria’s Detainee Files,’ brothers who were held at Saydnaya describe their experience – and so does a former guard who admits to torturing people there.
FRONTLINE has been covering the war since it began in 2011, tracing its origins and evolution, its impact on Syrians and the rest of the world, and how the U.S. has responded.