Syrian families' 'unbearable' wait to know fate of detained relatives

Following the overthrow of the Syrian government, civilians flocked to the notorious Saydnaya prison, north of the capital city of Damascus, in the hope of finding out about missing loved ones thought to be detained there.

The prison, referred to as a "human slaughterhouse" by rights groups, is where thousands of people were believed to have been detained, tortured and executed under the Assad regime.

Those who entered the military jail circulated footage showing the stark conditions inside on social media.

"I have relatives in Aleppo, but it is not easy for them to travel to Damascus to see the prison or look for missing people," Sanaa, who lives in Texas, said.

"I hope to save my sister."

At the time of their arrest, Ms Abassi's children - Dima, Entisar, Najah, Alaa, Ahmed and Layan - were 14, 13, 11, eight, six and two respectively.

"They took Rania with her kids and since that day we don't know anything about them," Naila said.

The family have only received one piece of information about their detainment, which came shortly after the arrest. They believe the family was held at a prison in Damascus, known as the Palestine branch, which was operated by Syrian intelligence.

A female inmate who was released told the family in 2013 that she heard the voices of children in the prison, two weeks after the arrest.

Now that prisoners have been released, family members on the ground have visited the prisons to try to find them.

"We are watching the news and seeing people released from the prisons and looking at the videos to see if we can see them," Naila said.

"But the prisons have been opened and we haven't seen Rania yet. It is unbearable."

"We were waiting for this day for 13 years," she added. "But our wounds are still fresh now as if it happened yesterday."

But Maryam Kamalmaz refuses to give up on the idea that her father may still be alive.

"The FBI told us he was dead - but they did not have a body or any concrete information," she said.

"We are seeing stories of people [who] were declared dead and given death certificates and then they actually turned out to be alive.

"It renews our hope to find him alive. But if we don't, then at least we want to find his remains and have some sort of closure."

Maryam added: "We have people inside Syria going to the hospitals with high hopes, as well as to Saydnaya prison.

"I keep looking at the pictures and videos of people coming out of the Saydnaya prison, and thinking maybe I will see him there."

Maryam said she does not know why her father was kidnapped. Her family believe he may have been being held as leverage by the Assad family because he was American.

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