DNA testing has enabled the identification of missing persons in Syria for the first time this year, marking a significant advance in efforts to determine the fate of thousands of people who disappeared amid decades of conflict and repression. Authorities and humanitarian groups have confirmed at least three such cases, offering renewed hope to families long awaiting answers.
Two of the cases were completed by Syria’s National Commission for Missing Persons, while the third involved collaboration between Syrian and international non-governmental organizations. This latter effort used genetic analysis to identify the remains of a family believed killed in a suspected airstrike during the 2017 campaign to wrest control of Raqqa from Daesh militants.
The identifications, disclosed publicly for the first time, underscore the potential of DNA-based approaches to address the needs of families across Syria, where an estimated 130,000 to 300,000 people remain unaccounted for. The prolonged civil war and decades of authoritarian rule under the Assad family severely limited access to detention centers, burial sites, and key investigative areas. Obstacles to DNA identification include restricted site access during active hostilities, logistical difficulties in collecting samples from relatives, and shortages of forensic expertise and equipment.
In the Raqqa case, the Syrian Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC), an independent humanitarian group, partnered with the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation—a nonprofit that has applied forensic techniques to resolve unresolved killings from Guatemala’s internal conflict. Together, they identified the remains of Manar Aliwi, her husband, and five of their children, who had been sheltering in a building targeted during US-led airstrikes in August 2017. Investigators recovered the remains after a demining team found decomposing bodies in the rubble of the destroyed building nearly seven years later. Identification was confirmed through DNA analysis and corroborated by clothing and identity papers, alongside input from surviving relatives.
Mohamed Hamadah, Aliwi’s son and the sole survivor in the immediate family, described the identification as a long-awaited closure after nearly a decade of uncertainty. “Now we can bury them, have marked graves and visit them, and at least put our minds a little more at rest,” he said. “For about nine years, we kept thinking: Did they get out? Did they go to another city? Did they reach Assad government-held areas?”
The National Commission for Missing Persons completed DNA-based confirmations in two other cases, with findings reviewed by International Committee of the Red Cross experts; however, the commission has not provided additional details on those victims or circumstances.
These initial successes in DNA identification highlight a new chapter in addressing Syria’s missing persons crisis, enabled in part by the political changes following President Bashar Assad’s removal from power in late 2024. Increased access to previously restricted sites has created opportunities for expanded forensic investigations, though significant challenges remain in uncovering the full extent of disappearances during Syria’s tumultuous recent history.