The Syrian National Commission for Missing Persons has estimated that between one hundred and twenty thousand and three hundred thousand people disappeared during five decades of authoritarian rule by the al-Assad family.
Commission head Mohammed Reda Jalkhi told state media on Monday that the true figure could be much higher, covering the period from 1970 until now.
He revealed that the body, set up in May, has so far documented sixty-three mass graves, with reports of more sites still to be verified.
Tens of thousands of Syrians went missing after the 2011 pro-democracy protests spiralled into civil war, which the United Nations says has killed more than three hundred thousand civilians and displaced at least fourteen million people.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights earlier estimated that about one hundred and fifty-seven thousand have been missing since March 2011.
Since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in December, Syria has been under a transitional administration led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
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