ISIS Leaves Mass-Graves in their Wake: Palmyra 45 Corpses Found

CBC Canda Reports:             Syrian troops have identified 45 bodies so far in a mass grave found in the city of Palmyra after it was recaptured from Islamic State, a military source told Reuters on Saturday.

• Syrian troaops drive ISIS out of historic Palmyra, military says
• Syrian troops enter city of Palmyra after Russian airstrikes
• ​​ISIS beheads prominent Syrian archeologist in Palmyra
• ​ISIS blows up ancient tombs in Palmyra

The communal grave, on the northeastern edge of Palmyra, is the only one found so far in the city by the Syrian forces, the source said.

It held the bodies of both civilians and Syrian army members captured by ISIS. Syrian state news agency SANA said on Friday the grave contained many women and children and some of the bodies had been beheaded.

In May of last year, as Islamic State took control of Palmyra, the hard-line Islamist militants were reported by Syrian state media to have killed at least 400 people in the first four days of control.

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• Syrian government forces, backed by heavy Russian air support, drove Islamic State fighters out of Palmyra on March 27, 2016, giving antiquities experts their first chance in almost a year to see damage inflicted on the ancient city's UNESCO World Heritage Sites. (Maher al Mounes/AFP/Getty)

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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the five-year-old Syrian conflict through a network of sources on the ground, said that Islamic State had killed a number of people at an earlier time and buried them on the outskirts of the city.

This undated file photo released in August 2015 on a social media site used by ISIS militants, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows smoke from the detonation of the 2,000-year-old temple of Baalshamin in Syria's ancient caravan city of Palmyra. (The Associated Press)

The Observatory reported on Saturday on fighting between Syrian forces and Islamic State around Qaryatain to the west of Palmyra. It also reported Russian and Syrian airstrikes in the same area and to the east of Palmyra around the town of Sukhna.

Attacks by government forces against Islamic State positions to the around Palmyra are aimed at moving east across the desert to Islamic State-held Deir al-Zor near the Iraqi border, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said.