World News | Syrians Recover Human Remains from Site Used by Hezbollah, Other Assad Allies

Damascus, Dec 18 (AP) The Syrian Civil Defence group, known as the White Helmets, uncovered at least 21 corpses as well as incomplete human remains on Wednesday in the Sayyida Zeinab suburb of the capital Damascus.

The discovery was made at a site previously used by Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iran-backed Iraqi militias, both allies of deposed President Bashar Assad during the country's civil war. The site included a field kitchen, a drugstore and a morgue, according to Ammar al-Salmo, an official with the White Helmets, a volunteer organisation that operated in areas that were controlled by the opposition.

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Rescue teams in white hazmat suits searched the site, located not far from the revered shrine of Sayyida Zeinab, the granddaughter of Prophet Mohammad. The remains were placed into black bags and loaded onto a truck as bystanders from the neighbourhood looked on.

“Some (of the remains) are skeletons, others are incomplete, and there are bags of small bones. We cannot yet determine the number of victims,” al-Salmo said.

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“Damascus has become a mass grave,” he said, pointing out the growing reports of war-related graves and burial sites in the capital and other places in Syria.

Iran and Hezbollah provided Assad's government with military, financial and logistical support during the civil war. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)