Syria Says Mass Grave Found In Palmyra After Recapture From ISIS

The historic city fell under the militants' control last year.
Syrian army soldiers stands on the ruins of the Temple of Bel in the historic city of Palmyra. Syria said some 40 bodies were found in a mass grave in the city after its recapture from ISIS.
Syrian army soldiers stands on the ruins of the Temple of Bel in the historic city of Palmyra. Syria said some 40 bodies were found in a mass grave in the city after its recapture from ISIS.
Omar Sanadiki / Reuters

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian troops have identified 45 bodies so far in a mass grave found in the city of Palmyra after it was recaptured from Islamic State, a military source told Reuters on Saturday.

Syrian government forces backed by heavy Russian air support drove Islamic State out of Palmyra last Sunday, inflicting what the army called a mortal blow to militants who had dynamited the city's ancient temples.

The communal grave, on the north-eastern edge of Palmyra, is the only one found so far in the city by the Syrian forces, the source said. It held the bodies of both civilians and Syrian army members captured by Islamic State.

Syrian state news agency SANA said on Friday the grave contained many women and children and some of the bodies had been beheaded.

The Islamic State militant group took over the city in May last year. Syrian regime forces recaptured it last Sunday.
The Islamic State militant group took over the city in May last year. Syrian regime forces recaptured it last Sunday.
Omar Sanadiki / Reuters

In May last year, as Islamic State took control of Palmyra, the hard-line Islamist militants were reported by Syrian state media to have killed at least 400 people in the first four days of control.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the five-year-old Syrian conflict through a network of sources on the ground, said that Islamic State had killed a number of people at an earlier time and buried them on the outskirts of the city.

The Observatory reported on Saturday that fighting between Syrian forces and Islamic State around Qaryatain to the west of Palmyra. It also reported Russian and Syrian air strikes in the same area and to the east of Palmyra around the town of Sukhna.

Attacks by government forces against Islamic State positions to the around Palmyra are aimed at moving east across the desert to Islamic State-held Deir al-Zor near the Iraqi border, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said.

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