Syrian troops have found a mass grave containing the bodies of 42 people executed by Islamic State (IS) militants in Palmyra, as Washington said the group’s leader will eventually “taste justice.”
The Islamic State group 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 told reporters on Saturday.
Photo: Reuters
Twenty-four of the bodies found were civilians, including three children, he said, asking not to be named.
“They were executed either by beheading or by shooting,” he said.
In a major symbolic and strategic coup for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian army on Sunday last week recaptured Palmyra and its UNESCO World Heritage Site, which the Islamic State group had overrun in May last year.
During their nearly 10-month occupation of Palmyra, the militants executed at least 280 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor that confirmed the discovery of the mass grave.
Soon afterward, the Islamic State group stormed Palmyra, shooting dead 25 soldiers in the ancient Roman theater.
It later released a video of the mass killing in which the executioners appeared to be children or teenagers.
Nearly a week on, few of Palmyra’s up to 70,000 residents have returned.
“People fear reprisal by the regime and also the mines planted all over the city by IS,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told reporters. “In addition, many houses were flattened by Russian airstrikes before Palmyra was reclaimed.”
About 70km to the west, Syrian troops on Saturday pounded the the Islamic State-held city of Sukhna, which the army wants to take back 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” in eastern Syria, along the Iraqi border, which is mostly controlled by the Islamic State group, Abdel Rahman said.
In the latest reports last night, Syrian state media and the Observatory said government forces had entered a central town that was held by the Islamic State group.
State TV said Syrian troops and pro-government fighters pushed into Qaryatain yesterday after days of intense clashes with militants outside the town.
Additional reporting by AP
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