4.800 bodies exhumed from mass graves in Raqqa
Raqqa – North-Press Agency
Ahmad al-Hassan
The Initial Response Team of Raqqa’s Civil Council continues exhuming bodies from the mass graves, which were discovered by previous information provided by the civilians of Raqqa who stayed in the city during ISIS control over the city, and the fight between the Global Coalition-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the terrorist group in 2017.
Since the start of the work of the Initial Response Team, 4.800 bodies were exhumed, only 320 of which were identified and were handed over to their families.
14 mass graves were so far discovered in the city, distributed in the public squares of the city and the suburbs, where the Panorama and Euphrates cemeteries are the largest because more than 1,500 bodies were exhumed from them, according to what Yasser al-Khamis, the head of the Initial Response Team said.
Al-Khamis stated to North-Press that they had recently exhumed about 632 bodies from the cemetery of Fakhikha, south of the Euphrates near the Pioneers Camp, pointing out that most of the bodies were of children and women, as well as the bodies of ISIS militants.
Al-Khamis added: “So far, we’ve exhumed about 370 bodies from the cemetery of the Pioneers Camp in the southern countryside of Raqqa,” adding that working there, is still ongoing.
The forensic medicine analyzes the bodies and documents them in an official file with small samples that are saved for future DNA tests when required, after the completion of the documentation, the exhumed bodies are taken to a special cemetery in the south of the Euphrates to be buried there.
The Initial Response Team was established by Raqqa’s Civil Council at the beginning of last year, it consists of 104 members and divided into several sections: firefighters, emergency, diving, and exhumation.
The team is working to exhume the bodies from stadiums, gardens, and fields that were turned into cemeteries during the period of ISIS control over the city, with some of the obstacles such as lack of modern equipment and the difficulty of identifying the bodies.