Syrian commission for missing persons has estimated that between 120,000 and 300,000 people had gone missing within five decades of authoritarian rule by the al-Assad family.

The head of National Commission for Missing Persons, Mohammed Reda Jalkhi, said on Monday that between 120,000 and 300,000 people have gone missing since 1970.

“But the actual number may be much higher,” he told state news agency SANA, Syria’s official news agency.

He said that the governmental commission mandate covered the period from 1970 until now.

Hafez al-Assad served as president of Syria from 1971 till his death in 2000, after which his son, Bashar al-Assad, took over until he was overthrown by an Islamist-led rebel alliance in December.

Mr Jalkhi said that the commission, formed in May, has so far documented 63 mass graves and they received information about other locations that had yet to be verified.

Tens of thousands of people disappeared after the 2011 pro-democracy protests against al-Assad’s regime escalated into a full-scale civil war.

It displaced about 14 million people and left more than 300,000 civilians dead, according to UN estimates.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights had previously said that around 157,000 went missing since March 2011.

Since Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow in December, the country has been ruled by a transitional administration led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

(dpa/NAN)