(Zaman Al Wasl)- A new mass grave, including 200 bodies of Syrian army troops, was exhumed in eastern Raqqa province, Raqqa’s First Response Team said Tuesday.
At least 200 bodies were recovered from the Hamarat area east of Raqqa city, according to Yaser al-Khamis, head of Response Team.
Since the defeat of ISIS in Raqqa in 2017, forensic teams have begun to lift bodies that are believed to have been buried there during the four-month campaign to liberate the city.
So far, 5,500 bodies have been exhumed from mass graves in the areas of al-Rasheed Stadium, the zoo, the Bedouin neighborhood, and the ancient mosque.
In 2014, regime forces found a mass grave near Tabqa air base, containing the bodies of 60 troops killed by ISIS in 2014.
Activists said the victims in the mass graves were not only killed by ISIS, but also by the US-led Coalition airstrikes and the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The SDF has been the main partner of the US-led coalition against ISIS in Syria, helping drive the jihadists out of swathes of northern and eastern Syria.
Daesh has been largely defeated in the country but has continued to carry out ambushes, assassinations and bombings there and still poses a threat along its border with Syria.
Last week, Daesh killed 19 regime troops in a desert town near Palmyra city.
The Islamic State still controls a territory in the gas-rich desert lies between Homs and Deir Ezzor provinces.
Daesh has resorted to guerrilla tactics since it abandoned its goal of holding territory and creating a self-declared caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria.
Zaman Al Wasl
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