100 bodies exhumed from new mass grave in Raqqa: Response Team

(Zaman Al Wasl)- About 100 bodies have been exhumed from a mass graves in eastern Raqqa province, the First Response Team said Tuesday.

Yaser al-Khamis, head of the local rescue group, said the corpse toll of the new mass grave in Tel Zaidan is expected to reach a total of 200.

The dig-out in the grave work began on April 13 in the grave as most of victiemens are young men, according to forensic crew.

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, 5,600 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.

Zaman Al Wasl