Beginning in 2018, long trenches, similar to those at #Qutayfa, began appearing in satellite images analyzed by The Times. The trenches were much longer than the crudely dug pits from years earlier. The operation at #Najha had become more systematic.

With limited access to #Najha in 2013, the government that year shifted operations to another large mass grave site in Qutayfa, a town about 20 miles north of #Damascus. Mihzah, who worked at both sites, said that at #Qutayfa, he and others excavated long and narrow trenches.