“Afrin Now” continues to follow the file of the bodies belonging to residents of the Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhoods at the Forensic Medicine Center in the city of Aleppo, as part of its ongoing coverage of the report it published on 23 January 2026 (available in the “Special Reports” section) regarding the presence of large numbers of bodies at the center.
Local sources told “Afrin Now” that residents of the Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhoods continue to receive the bodies of their relatives who lost their lives as a result of the military operations carried out by the forces of the Syrian Transitional Government against the two neighborhoods. The deceased include civilians, in addition to fighters from the Internal Security Forces in Aleppo (Asayish).
Lengthy and Complex Procedures
Local sources told “Afrin Now” that residents of the Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhoods continue to receive the bodies of their relatives who lost their lives as a result of the military operations carried out by the forces of the Syrian Transitional Government against the two neighborhoods. The deceased include civilians, in addition to fighters from the Internal Security Forces in Aleppo (Asayish).
According to sources speaking to “Afrin Now,” most of the bodies were buried in the “New Islamic Cemetery” east of the city of Aleppo before their identities were established. Subsequently, the families of the victims are compelled to undergo lengthy and complex official procedures in order to identify their relatives after burial and retrieve their bodies.
The sources explained that the procedures for receiving the bodies pass through the following stages:
🟢 Visiting the Forensic Medicine Center in the Jubb al-Qubba neighborhood of the city of Aleppo.
🟢 Providing accurate descriptions of the victim and photographs belonging to them, after which the center provides the families with the body number.
🟢 Taking the body number to the police station located within the residential area of the missing person’s relatives, which in most cases is the police station in the al-Midan neighborhood.
🟢 The families are then referred from the police station to the Palace of Justice, specifically to Investigative Judges No. 17 and No. 18.
🟢 Submitting an official request to receive and transfer the body within the Palace of Justice.
🟢 After the approval of the investigative judge, the relatives of the missing persons are referred to the Public Prosecutor, and then referred again to the police station.
🟢 Obtaining official approval from the police station, after which they are referred to the Office for the Burial of the Dead.
🟢 After obtaining approval from the Office for the Burial of the Dead in Aleppo, the families proceed to the “New Islamic Cemetery” east of the city, where the grave is opened and the body is handed over.
Lack of Official Transparency
These developments come amid a media blackout imposed by the relevant authorities in Aleppo Governorate. To date, the exact number of bodies has not been disclosed, nor have the identities of the victims, the circumstances of their deaths, or the mechanism through which the bodies were transferred from the Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhoods to the Forensic Medicine Center.
Despite attempts by “Afrin Now” to contact the Forensic Medicine Center in the city of Aleppo, the administration of the center refused to provide any information or official data regarding the number of bodies, the identities of the deceased, or the circumstances of their deaths.
In the absence of any official statements or data, a large number of residents of the Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhoods remain listed as missing, while their families remain unable to determine their fate, further exacerbating the suffering of the families.
Source: Afrin Now
This material was published in agreement with “Afrin Now.”
