Search teams have recovered 175 bodies from mass grave in the Damascus suburb of Otaiba, Syrian authorities confirmed.
The site was discovered earlier this week by residents who alerted officials. The remains are believed to include civilians and opposition fighters killed in a February 2014 ambush by forces loyal to then-president Bashar al-Assad, as people tried to flee the besieged enclave of eastern Ghouta.
Officials said only bodies near the surface had so far been removed. Amer Fahed, a commander with the White Helmets civil defence group, said excavation of the site would not begin until procedures are set by the National Commission for Missing Persons. Ammar al-Issa, an official with the commission, added that the number of victims could be higher, with estimates ranging between 200 and 300.
Families of the disappeared gathered at the site in search of clues. Some said they recognised clothing among the recovered belongings.
The discovery is one of several mass graves uncovered across Syria since Assad’s ouster in December 2024, when a rebel offensive ended his nearly 25-year rule and the Baath Party’s decades-long dominance.
Syria’s interim government, led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, established the National Commission for Missing Persons in May to investigate cases of detention and disappearance. Rights groups estimate that about 150,000 people were detained or went missing between 2011 and 2024, many of them feared to be buried in unmarked graves.
Families of the disappeared continue to stage demonstrations demanding accountability and faster progress in uncovering the fate of their loved ones.
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The U.S. government has warned that air traffic controllers who repeatedly fail to report for duty during the shutdown could be fired, amid rising flight delays across the country.
U.S. President Donald Trump credits himself with ending "seven wars in seven months" since he returned to the White House in January. With just a few hours to the announcement of Nobel Peace Prize, could he win the prestigious international award?
The United States will deploy 200 troops as part of a joint task force aimed at stabilising Gaza, though no U.S. personnel will be stationed within the Strip, according to two senior U.S. officials on Thursday.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb finalised an agreement on Thursday, for the U.S. Coast Guard to acquire up to 11 icebreaker ships, enhancing U.S. national security in the Arctic.
A large-scale Russian attack on Friday morning caused a fire in a high-rise apartment building in central Kyiv and targeted energy infrastructure, officials reported.
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