We know there are thousands of people kept in those prisons. We don’t know how many are still alive, released, or dead. For years, people have been disappeared, with families not knowing where their loved ones are,

Up to 13,000 people were reportedly executed between 2011 and 2016 at the Saydnaya military prison, dubbed the "human slaughterhouse."

There were widespread celebrations in Syria after rebels forced dictator Bashar al-Assad from power, whose family has ruled Syria for decades. The rebels are led by a former al Qaeda commander who says he has since split from the terror group.

Assad’s fall in Syria, children, the elderly, women and men sprint toward the exit of the notorious Sednaya Prison on the outskirts of Damascus — some stand frozen in confusion at the news of their freedom.

In Syria's capital Damascus the hope of a country freed from its longtime dictator Bashar al Assad was starting to fade at the city's Saydnaya military prison.

Powerful images have emerged showing Syrians, including women and children, being freed from prisons across the country after the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad.

As the brutality of the Assad regime falls away, Bel Trew finds families driven by desperation, grief and fury as they searched for their lost loved ones