[ad_1]
BEIRUT, Oct. 21 (AP) Syrian authorities have discovered a mass grave in the historic town of Palmyra, where victims of the militant Islamic State group that took control of the area years ago, the Syrian state news agency said on Friday. corpse.
According to SANA, the mass grave was discovered near a second-century Roman amphitheater. The bodies of the 12 people buried there have been taken to a hospital mortuary for identification before they can be handed over to their families, the agency said.
Also read | Russo-Ukraine War: FATF condemns Russian invasion of Kyiv, imposing additional restrictions on Moscow.
Palmyra is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that once linked Persia, India, China with the Roman Empire and the Mediterranean region. Islamic State militants took control of the area in two rounds from 2015 to 2016 and killed dozens of people there before being expelled — killings often captured in extremist propaganda videos. IS also damaged some of the town’s famous archaeological treasures.
IS’ atrocities and actions in Palmyra have sparked international outcry. Palmyra was recaptured by Syrian government forces in 2017 and has since controlled it.
Also read | UK PM race: Ben Wallace excludes himself, backs Boris Johnson as next PM after Liz Truss resigns
With its towering 2,000-year-old Roman colonnades and priceless artifacts, Palmyra is affectionately known by Syrians as the “Bride of the Desert.”
Before the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011 – a conflict that killed hundreds of thousands of people – Palmyra was home to 65,000 people. Today, about 215 kilometers (155 miles) east of Damascus, a palm-fringed desert oasis is a strategic crossroads linking the Syrian capital with the country’s east and neighboring Iraq. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
[ad_2]
Source link
