A month and a half since digging in one of Raqqa's largest discovered mass graves began, grave diggers continue to exhume bodies, with one official saying that more than 500 bodies have been so far recovered.
The operation in the city in northern Syria, once the de facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group, is being undertaken by local groups and first responders amid concerns regarding the preservation of bodies and evidence for possible war crimes trials.
Raqqa was taken from ISIL in October 2017 after a fierce US-backed campaign, but recovery teams continue to locate mass graves in and around the city.
The Panorama mass grave, named after the neighbourhood where it was found, is one of the largest of nine mass graves discovered so far, and is believed to contain around 1,500 bodies.
Hammoud al-Shawakh, a local official involved in the work, was quoted as saying by The Associated Press news agency on Tuesday that 516 bodies believed to be of ISIL fighters and civilians have so far been exhumed.
To know more:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/syria-hundreds-bodies-exhumed-mass-grave-raqqa-181127151642097.html
