Syria has identified missing people through DNA testing for the first time, offering new hope to thousands of families who have spent years searching for relatives who disappeared during the country’s civil war.
According to Reuters, forensic investigators have confirmed identities in three separate cases this year, including seven members of one family killed during the battle against Islamic State in Raqqa in 2017.
Yet the breakthrough also shows just how far short Syria is from solving one of its most agonizing mysteries.
The country’s National Commission for Missing Persons receives an average of 100 new reports of missing people every day.
In one case, Mohammad Hamadah finally learned what happened to seven relatives who disappeared nearly a decade ago. His parents and five siblings were killed when an airstrike destroyed a building in Raqqa.
Years later, investigators found human remains in the debris, and sent bones to Guatemala for DNA testing. All seven victims were identified by the results. However, Mohammad’s grandfather, who was also present with the family, remains missing.
The discovery comes nearly two years after the overthrow of former president Bashar al-Assad, whose government was accused of imprisoning and forcibly disappearing thousands of people.
Syria’s missing-persons commission estimates that between 120,000 and 300,000 people remain unaccounted for.
But why has identifying them taken so long?
Years of fighting prevented investigators from accessing burial sites, while Syria still lacks sufficient forensic laboratories, equipment and trained specialists.
The commission has identified victims in two other cases, although large-scale DNA testing has yet to begin.
The first confirmed identifications are a welcome relief to families who have long been waiting for answers to questions about what happened to their family members.
