Zaman al-Wasl obtained a security document issued by the Intelligence Directorate on September 28, 2020, marked "Top Secret - Immediate."
The document reveals the state of alert that gripped the regime's security apparatus following Zaman al-Wasl's investigation into the Quatifa cemetery, titled "
Quatifa Cemetery Again... Tight Security Guards to Exhume Graves." The newspaper had previously documented mass burials at the cemetery during the years of the war.
The document confirms that the Intelligence Directorate ordered the head of the Quatifa detachment to immediately investigate Zaman al-Wasl's report. This followed the newspaper's publication of satellite images showing the cemetery's expansion, the construction of a two-meter-high concrete wall, and its encirclement by heavy military guard. The investigation also noted a single entrance, the deployment of military vehicles, and a ban on approaching the area.
The accompanying data indicates that a Republican Guard officer named Ghassan Nassour supervises the detachment operating within the cemetery. The document also records the movement of covered vehicles and excavators working inside the wall, corroborating the newspaper's earlier report.
Security correspondence reveals that the wall was constructed under a contract issued by the Minister of Defense and executed by the Military Housing Establishment, spanning 904 meters. It also confirms the existence of rooms under construction within the cemetery, used by the Quatifa detachment, in addition to a prefabricated room of "unknown origin," according to the same security report.
One of the security memos documents the entry of four to six dump trucks transporting corpses emitting foul odors, under the supervision of a Republican Guard officer, in the last observation ten days prior to the report's preparation. It also indicates the presence of a yellow excavator operating within the site, radar signals, and a guard detachment belonging to the 220th Brigade of the Ministry of Defense.
It is worth noting that the "Japan Stands with Syria" association brought these documents to Zaman al-Wasl's attention, granting them access to the cemetery file before any other media outlet.
The editor-in-chief confirmed that the newspaper obtained photos and documents proving that the regime transferred the remains of martyrs from the Quatifa cemetery in the Damascus countryside to the al-Dumayr desert, following an urgent directive issued by military intelligence.
The documents show that the regime was forced to expedite the transfer of the remains after Zaman al-Wasl revealed the location of the cemetery and published a report about it in early 2019 and again in 2020, creating widespread confusion within its institutions during a period when it believed itself invincible.
It is worth noting that Reuters revealed details of the transfer of the remains in 2025 in its report titled "Transferring the Soil."
The leaked document reveals that the regime treated Zaman al-Wasl's report as a serious revelation that forced it to reassess its actions. This constitutes a practical acknowledgment of the newspaper's credibility and its ability to expose the mass graves despite the regime's attempts to conceal the evidence.
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