Syrian troops find mass grave with 42 IS victims
The Governor of Homs Talal Barazi in Palmyra City on Friday. The city was retaken by government soldiers from IS group a week ago. PHOTO | AFP
What you need to know:
IS has in recent months claimed responsibility for attacks in Brussels and Paris, but has lost ground in Syria and Iraq.
Twenty-four of the victims were civilians, including three children, he said, asking not to be named.
Syria’s five-year war has left at least 270,000 people dead.
DAMASCUS, Saturday
Syrian troops have found a mass grave containing the bodies of 42 people executed by Islamic State jihadists in Palmyra, as Washington warned the group’s leader would eventually “taste justice”.
IS has in recent months claimed responsibility for attacks in Brussels and Paris, but has lost ground in Syria and Iraq.
“Days after Syrian troops, backed by Russian forces recaptured Palmyra and its ancient ruins, the army “uncovered a mass grave of officers, soldiers, members of the popular committees (pro-regime militia) and their relatives,” a military source said.
Twenty-four of the victims were civilians, including three children, he said, asking not to be named.
“They were either beheaded or shot.”
The bodies have been transferred to a military hospital in the provincial capital Homs. Some have been identified.
In a major symbolic and strategic coup for President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian army on Sunday last week recaptured Palmyra and its Unesco World Heritage Site, which IS had overrun in May 2015.
During their nearly 10-month occupation of Palmyra, the jihadists executed at least 280 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor which confirmed the discovery of the mass grave.
Soon after IS stormed Palmyra, it shot dead 25 soldiers in the ancient Roman theatre.
It later released a video of the mass killing in which the executioners appeared to be children or teenagers.
Syria’s five-year war has left at least 270,000 people dead. Few mass graves have been found, however.
Nearly a week on, few of Palmyra’s up to 70,000 original residents have returned.
“People fear reprisals by the regime and the mines planted all over the city by IS,” Observatory Director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
“Many houses were flattened by Russian air strikes before Palmyra was reclaimed.”
About 70 kilometres to the west, troops on Saturday pounded IS-held city of Sukhna, which the army wants to take back in order to consolidate its grip over Palmyra.
“If the regime takes Sukhna, it will use it as a launching pad for an operation against Deir Ezzor Province, along the Iraqi border and which is mostly controlled by IS,” Abdel Rahman said.
The army says the takeover of Palmyra will allow it to extend operations against IS in the east and around Raqa, the jihadists’ de facto capital.
