Earlier this month, a severely decomposed torso, thought to be the victim's, was dug up in a nearby cemetery.

At the Damascus hospital, the bodies brought from Seydnaya were laid out in a morgue, and when they ran out of space, the most decomposed ones were kept in a shed-like structure just outside.

A few of the men had been dead for weeks judging by the way faces have decomposed.

Post-mortem tests failed to ascertain the cause of Abiyah's death because tests on soft tissue, which had decomposed, could not be carried out.

"Changes in carbon sinks can significantly influence global warming -- the less carbon decomposed means more carbon stored and less carbon in the atmosphere."