Syria’s first DNA-based identifications offer hope for families of the missing

By Feras Dalatey DAMASCUS, Oct 20 (Reuters) DNA testing has helped identify the remains of missing people in at least three cases in Syria this year, the country s first such identification cases and a breakthrough in efforts to establish the fates of people missing after years of war. Two of the cases were completed by Syria s National Commission for Missing Persons, while the third was the work of Syrian and international non-governmental organisations, which used genetic analysis to help identify the remains of a family killed ​in a suspected airstrike during the war to oust Islamic State from Syria’s Raqqa in 2017. The three cases, reported here for the first time, offer a possible path towards ‌answers for families across Syria, where tens of thousands of people remain missing after decades of repression under Assad family rule and a nearly 14-year civil war. Former President Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow in late 2024 opened access to detention centres and burial sites long beyond