Two new mass graves of victims executed by the Islamic State terrorist group discovered north of Raqqa

Reliable sources have informed SOHR that SDF’s Internal Security Forces found two mass graves of regime soldiers, believed to be of the 17th Division and the 93rd Brigade, in the village of Al-Farhaniya in Ain Issa district, north of Raqqa.

According to SOHR sources, the initial response team of the Raqqa Civilian Council was able to recover nearly 15 bodies from the first cemetery, while the remains of nearly 40 bodies remained in a cemetery near the first one. All the victims were executed during the Islamic State, according to local sources in the area.

The SDF Relations Office handed over the bodies to regime forces and were transferred to Aleppo military hospital, in order to hand them over to their families after conducting tests and verifying their identities.

In 2018, the Syrian Observatory monitored the discovery of two mass graves containing dozens of bodies of members of the regime’s 93rd Brigade, who were executed by the Islamic State in 2014.

On August 26, SOHR activists reorted that the initial response team in Raqqa began to recover the bodies from cemetery No. 27 in al-Furussia area in the west of the province, after discovering it a few days ago with the help of the locals.

According to the team, the discovered cemetery contains more than 20 bodies. The team was able to recover a number of bodies belonging to women aged between 20 and 30, who were killed by field executions during the presence of the Islamic State.

The initial response team is still working at cemetery 26th in the village of Al-Hatash, north of Raqqa. 17 bodies have been recovered so far.

On July 8, the initial response team in SDF-held areas took samples from more than 1,200 bodies buried in a private cemetery set up by the team for documenting 25 mass graves in the following areas: al-Rasheed Stadium, Al-Bayda park, the children’s park, Swan park, Panorama, Al-Makab, Jabal al-Shamiya, Ramila neighbourhood, and scattered cemeteries in the bedouin neighbourhoods and Saif al-Dawla Street in Raqqa province.

Source: SOHR