On Tuesday, a mass grave was exhumed at a school in Raqqa city, the First Response Team of Raqqa Local Council said.
The head of the team, Yaser al-Khamis, said thirteen bodies were recovered from a school in the Badu (Bedouin) neighborhood in Raqqa city, saying the grave is the 16th mass grave to be exhumed since the fall of the Islamic State (ISIS) in October 2017.
Since the defeat of the ISIS in Raqqa, forensic teams began to lift bodies believed to have been buried there during the four-month campaign to liberate the city.
So far, 5,000 bodies have been exhumed from mass graves in the areas of al-Rasheed Stadium, the zoo, the Bedouin neighborhood, and the ancient mosque.
Last January, 660 bodies were exhumed from al-Fakhikha village south of Raqqa city.
Rescuers and recovery teams continue to locate mass graves around Raqqa.
In November 2018, about 800 bodies were exhumed from the Panorama mass grave, but estimates suggest the number of bodies buried there at around 1,500.
Raqqa based 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 regime forces also found a mass graves near Tabqa air base, containing the bodies of 60 troops killed by ISIS in 2014. The bodies were moved to Aleppo military hospital.
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.
Since the Syrian revolution erupted in 2011, more than 560,000 people have been killed, and more than 6 million people have been displaced.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
