Armed Syrian rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) released hundreds of prisoners detained by exiled President Bashar al-Assad. These prisons are called the ‘slaughterhouse of Syria’. As rebels spread across Syria, they broke prison locks to free political prisoners detained by Assad since the beginning of protests in 2011. The government officials deployed for his security ran away. Those freed from prison also include those who were believed to have disappeared. ‘I got a new life’ Related News Bashar Barhourm, 63, was believed to have been hanged after seven months in prison. It took writer Barhourm a few minutes to understand that the people who had entered his cell were not Assad’s men but rebels who had come to liberate him. After coming out of jail and seeing people celebrating Assad’s overthrow on the streets of Damascus, Barhourm told the news agency Associated Press, ‘I had not seen the sun before today. Instead of dying, thank God, he gave me a new life. Prisoners freed from ‘Human Slaughterhouse’ The Sayednaya military prison, located north of Damascus, is known as the ‘Human Slaughterhouse’. As soon as the rebels entered the prison, the prisoners, including women and their children, started screaming in fear. An Amnesty International report said 13,000 Syrians were killed between 2011 and 2016, as dozens were secretly executed every week. ‘Don’t be afraid, Bashar Assad is gone,’ a rebel fighter said as he tried to get hundreds of women out of their crowded cells. Bashar Assad is gone! Why are you afraid?’ Human rights groups such as Amnesty International say torture, execution and starvation were used “systematically” against political prisoners in Syrian prisons.