PALMYRA, (ST)- Engineering units in the Syrian Army in cooperation with popular defense groups on Friday found a mass grave in the northeastern outskirts of the recently liberated ancient city of Palmyra.
Some 40 bodies of martyrs, killed by Deash terrorists upon controlling the city, were pulled out, according to a filed source.
The source told the Syrian news agency that during a combing operation aiming to dismantle explosive devises and clear mines planted by Deash in Palmyra, the engineering units and popular defense groups uncovered the mass grave in the neighborhood of Masakin al-Jahizia in the city. 25 bodies, 3 children and 5 women, were pulled out, the source said.
According to the source, 15 more bodies, all of them were children and women, were pulled out later raising the number of the martyrs to 40.
Efforts to pull out more bodies from the grave will continue, the source said, clarifying that condition of the corpses shows that the terrorists of the Daesh takfiri organization beheaded some victims and mutilated the bodies of some others.
After controlling Palmyra, Deash terrorists committed a massacre in May 2015 in the city, claiming the lives of 400 people, most of them children, women and elderly.
The Syrian Arab Army and its allies in cooperation with popular defense groups managed on March 27 to recapture the historical city of Palmyra from the terrorists of Daesh. Many terrorists were killed and many others fled towards Deir Ezzour.
Hamda Mustafa