14/11/2011 / SYRIA
Videos show Syrian soldiers taking away victims' bodies
These videos were filmed on November 10 in Harasta, near the Syrian captial Damascus. According to our Observers, they show how soldiers take away their victims' bodies so that protesters can't count them as dead.
This first video was posted on the YouTube channel Ugarit News, which has proved to be a reliable source of amateur videos from Syria. It shows a soldier dragging the body of a man who appears to be dead.
A second video shows what happened next. Another soldier came to help drag the body toward a group of soldiers further down the street.
According to our Observers in Syria, these sights have been common in Syria since the start of the unrest. They say that when soldiers open fire on protesters, some of the soldiers will drag wounded or dead protesters to their vehicles while their colleagues give them cover fire.
Our Observers believe most of the dead are then buried in hidden graves so as to make it harder for activists to count how many protesters have been killed. Without bodies, they say, activist groups can only count people who are “missing.”
According to the United Nations, at least 3,500 people have been killed since the start of the Syrian government’s repression of protests eight months ago.
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