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Tortured bodies, stacks of clothes & ‘Hitler’ guard… shock scale Assad’s atrocities uncovered at ‘slaughterhouse’ prison
Watch teams make horrific discoveries in Assad's infamous prison below
REBELS have uncovered tortured bodies, piles of clothes and various equipment used to inflict slow and painful deaths on detainees in Assad's prison.
Thousands of freed prisoners returned to their families over the weekend after Assad's regime crumbled - but many are still said to be hidden inside secret underground cells.
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Haunting images show massive piles of clothes and shoes hidden away in a secret compartment of the notorious Sednaya prison.
And horrific footage captures the moment rebels find piles of dead bodies in the dungeons of the hellhole site who had been tortured to death.
The bodies were taken to Al-Mujtahid Hospital as teams carried out an investigation into the secret areas of the prison.
One man named Moammar Ali had been searching desperately for his beloved brother for 39 years.
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Ali Hassan al-Ali was arrested in 1986 by Syrian solders and had not been heard from since.
But on Thursday, Moammar received a picture of his brother standing outside the Hama central prison in north Syria.
His brother - now 57 - had finally been freed from one of Assad's brutal prisons, having entered at just 18 years old.
He was one of the thousands released when Islamist rebels led by Hayat al Tahir al-Sham (HTS) captured key cities in the country.
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But now the years of abuse, torture and death that inmates had to endure in the Syrian prisons are being exposed.
At Mezze Air Base in Damascus - which was used as a prison - inmates were beaten, tortured and killed every day, according to reports.
One guard called himself Hitler, and, much like the World War II tyrant, he treated prisoners like animals.
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To entertain his dinner guests, he would force detainees to act as various animals - whether it be a dog, cat or donkey.
Those who didn't play their part properly would be beaten, reports.
One former inmate told of the guards sadism, saying ";the dog has to bark, the cat meow, the rooster crow."
They added: "Hitler tries to tame them. When he pets one dog the other dog should act jealous."
In the Mezze hellhole, guards would hang prisoners from a fence completely naked and spray water on them on freezing cold nights.
One of the biggest rebel operations after overthrowing Assad saw them liberate the harrowing Sednaya Military Prison in the neighbouring city - nicknamed the Human Slaughterhouse.
SEDNAYA PRISON LIBERATED
Sednaya had become synonymous with Assad's reign of tyranny over the past couple of decades.
Chilling videos from inside the liberated jail show rebels looking around a room which appears to be where executions may have taken place.
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Footage from the Syrian capital shows dozens of women and young men reportedly walking free for the first time in years after rebels stormed the national prisons on the weekend.
A clip even shows a toddler leaving a cell as rebels cheered on.
Survivors of the torturous prison provided chilling testimonies on their near-death experiences, claiming it was "carefully designed to humiliate, degrade, sicken, starve and ultimately kill those trapped inside".
ASSAD'S DENIAL
The overthrown dictator Assad previously denied killing thousands of detainees at Sednaya.
He also denied using a secret crematorium to dispose of their remains in 2017.
Despite the denial, so-called "Caesar" files, which was a collection of over 55,000 photographs, was smuggled out of Syria in 2013 by a former military police photographer.
These images documented unspeakable torture and deaths of over 11,000 prisoners in Syrian government custody between March 2011 and August 2013.
RAPE, TORTURE AND DEATH
Some held at the horrific prison of Sednaya say they were raped, and in some cases, forced to rape other inmates.
A regular form of punishment was some kind of torture and severe beatings from guards, it's claimed, which led to individuals suffering life-changing damage like disabilities or death.
Floors of cells were coated in blood and pus from tortured prisoners, according to a 2017 Amnesty report, with the bodies of dead prisoners collected like rubbish at 9am each morning by guards.
Detainees were also forced to follow horrific rules as they were forced as they were deprived the basic necessities of food, water and medicine.
When food would be delivered it would often be cruelly scattered across cell floors by guards with a mixture of blood and dirt.
A human iron press was even discovered that was allegedly used to crush prisoners to death in Sednaya - unveiled in videos shared by rebels as they liberated prisoners.
They also found dozens of red rope nooses used for mass hangings in an execution room.
Other disturbing accounts say the mass hangings occurred once or twice a week on a Monday and Wednesday - chillingly in the middle of the night.
Human Rights Watch conducted over 200 interviews of detainees who said they were all tortured.
One 31-year-old man, who was detained in the Idlib area in June 2012, says he was made to undress and tortured using various heinous techniques.
He said: "'They started squeezing my fingers with pliers. They put staples in my fingers, chest and ears.
"I was only allowed to take them out if I spoke. The staples in the ears were the most painful.
"They used two wires hooked up to a car battery to give me electric shocks. They used electric stun-guns on my genitals twice.
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"I thought I would never see my family again. They tortured me like this three times over three days."
The unbelievable practices, which human rights groups say amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, were authorised at the highest level of the Syrian government under Assad.
MASS EXECUTIONS
If your name was called out in the night, you'd be reportedly told that you and others would be moved to civilian prisons in Syria - with as many as 50 people were called in one night.
But this was not the case - instead, they were moved to a cell in a basement of the prison where they were beaten severely and then transported to another prison building to be hanged.
Throughout the scarring process, blindfolds were kept on meaning they didn't know when or how they would die until they felt the noose around their necks.
A former judge who saw the hangings said in the Amnesty report: "They kept them [hanging] there for 10 to 15 minutes. Some didn't die because they are light.
"For the young ones, their weight wouldn't kill them. The officers' assistants would pull them down and break their necks."
A so-called "special rule" within the prison also meant detainees weren't allowed to make any sound - whether it be speaking or whispering.
And if they were to even look at the guards, it would be an automatic death sentence.
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES EXPOSED
Lynn Maalouf, Deputy Director for Research at Amnesty International's regional office in Beirut, said at the time of publication: "The horrors depicted in this report reveal a hidden, monstrous campaign, authorised at the highest levels of the Syrian government, aimed at crushing any form of dissent within the Syrian population.
"We demand that the Syrian authorities immediately cease extrajudicial executions, torture and inhuman treatment at Sednaya Prison and in all other government prisons across Syria.
"Russia and Iran, the government's closest allies, must press for an end to these murderous detention policies."
The Syrian Network for Human Rights claims that since Assad's major government crackdown in March 2011, over 157,000 people remain under arrest or have been forcibly disappeared.
This includes a shocking 5,274 children and 10,221 women.
It is also claimed that over 15,000 have died under torture within this timeframe.
TYRANT OVERTHROWN
Ordinary Syrians continued to celebrate the end of the rule of Assad, whose family’s 53-year dynasty was brought down in a 12-day offensive.
His presidential palace was ransacked, looters taking his and UK-born wife Asma’s personal possessions.
Moment 'Assad family's secret escape tunnels are found under palace in raid by Syrian rebels' after regime is toppled
The mansion of his brother Major General Maher al-Assad, who led a Syrian Army unit, was also turned over.
Footage showed what appeared to be a network of tunnels beneath it with high-arched ceilings, electronic doors and rooms under the house including a fully kitted-out kitchen complete with Pepsi cans and Tetley tea.
The armed wing of rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which brought down Assad, has said it would form a transitional government soon.
Western powers, however, fear a power vacuum that could lead to the resurgence of ISIS.
US jets targeted 75 ISIS targets in the east of Syria to “disrupt, degrade, and defeat” the terror group so it “does not seek to take advantage”.
Diplomats were also wrestling with how best to deal with HTS, an al-Qaeda offshoot led by softly-spoken Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, a jihadist who once praised the 9/11 attackers.
He wants to impose strict Sharia law on Syria.
The White House said it would “work with all the groups in Syria”, while Turkey said developments in the country had “given us a glimmer of hope”.
The prison liberation comes amid a cascade of events that have toppled Assad's 24-year rule.
After seizing Damascus in a swift and decisive offensive, rebel forces declared victory and announced that the city was "free of Assad."
The dictator fled the capital on Sunday, reportedly aboard a plane that disappeared from radars.
He has been given refuge in Moscow and is currently under Russian protection.
The collapse of Assad's regime ignited celebrations across Syria.
In the capital, thousands poured into the streets, waving rebel flags and lighting flares.
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Statues of Assad and his late father, Hafez, were toppled in symbolic acts of defiance.
At Assad’s presidential palace, rebels filmed themselves looting valuables, including luxury vehicles and designer goods.
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