99 bodies recovered from Tel Zidan mass grave in Raqqa

Raqqa- North-Press Agency

Mustafa al-Khalil

The initial response team in the city of Raqqa continues to recover bodies from a mass grave located in Tel Zidan, 6km east of Raqqa, where work began on the 13th of last month.

Head of the initial response team of Raqqa’s Civil Council Yasser al-Khamis told North-Press that the number of bodies recovered from the mass grave of Tel Zidan has reached 99 as of Sunday.

The team’s forensic medicine department suggests that the total number of bodies in this grave reaches 200, and they are buried collectively along Tel Zidan and near the agricultural lands surrounding the hill, according to al-Khamis.

He explained that the bodies that were exhumed from the mass grave on Sunday "belong to people aged 35 years and under."

The initial response team in Raqqa recovered bodies belonging to persons between 20 and 25 years old in the first five days of work in Tel Zidan, while the bodies that were later exhumed belonged to people between the ages of 25 and 30, according to al-Khamis.

Al-Khamis indicated that the forensic department went to work in Tel Zidan mass grave last month "after a report was received from local residents on the presence of human bodies buried in a hole in the western side Tel Zidan.

Furthermore, he pointed out that Tel Zidan is the 25th known mass grave, and more than 7,000 bodies have been recovered from all of them thus far.

In mid-April, the team found a new mass grave containing 200 bodies believed to belong to victims executed by the Islamic State (ISIS) near the agricultural fields in Tel Zidan, adjacent to the village of Raqqa Samra, 6km east of Raqqa.