Syrian troops have reportedly discovered a mass grave in Palmyra that contains the bodies of 42 people, some beheaded, who were killed while Islamic State fighters controlled the ancient city.
The discovery comes as Syria’s partial ceasefire appears to be unravelling after at least 25 pro-government fighters died in clashes with opposition forces near Aleppo.
A state news agency in Syria reported that government forces had uncovered the mass grave after the area, home to world-renowned Roman ruins, was recaptured from Isis almost a week ago.
A military source told AFP on Friday that the Syrian military had found a grave site where officers, soldiers, members of pro-regime committees and their relatives had been buried.
Twenty-four of the victims were civilians, including three children, the source said. “They were executed either by beheading or by shooting.”
The grave was on the north-eastern edge of Palmyra, according to the news agency.
The bodies have been transferred to a military hospital in the provincial capital, Homs, and some have been identified, according to the source.
During its occupation of Palmyra, Isis killed at least 280 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor that confirmed the discovery of the mass grave.
Soon after Isis took the city, its fighters shot dead 25 soldiers in the ancient Roman theatre. It later released a video of the mass killing in which the killers appeared to be children or teenagers.
The Syrian and Russian governments have hailed their recapture of Palmyra, ending a 10-month ordeal that resulted in the destruction of some of the historic site’s most famed monuments.
The fall of the city to Isis in May 2015 attracted worldwide attention because it hosted some of the most well-preserved ruins of antiquity.
Isis destroyed the temples of Bel and Baalshamin and the Arch of Triumph, looting graves and using the amphitheatre to stage killings.
The defeat of Isis in Palmyra was a remarkable turn of fortune for the militant group. The territory it controls in both in Syria and Iraq has receded considerably under disparate offensives throughout the two collapsing nation states.
Fighting near Aleppo continued on Saturday close to the village of Tel al-Ais, which overlooks the main road connecting the city with Damascus, the Syrian Observatory said.
A fragile ceasefire has largely held for the past five weeks, but does not apply to territory held by Isis or the Nusra Front, an al-Qaida affiliate.
On Thursday, government jets carried out airstrikes outside Damascus that killed 33 civilians, the Syrian Observatory reported.
Turkish forces launched artillery strikes on Isis positions around the town of Azaz in northern Syria on Saturday, the Dogan news agency said. It was the the first time there had been reports of Turkey striking Isis in Syria since early March.
The report said the artillery strikes were carried out following air raids in the same region by the US-led coalition against Isis.
On Thursday at least 40 mostly foreign Isis members, including 18 child soldiers, were killed in raids on a village in Deir Ezzor province, the Syrian Observatory said. It was one of the highest tolls that Isis had suffered in a single strike since it emerged in Syria in 2013, the monitoring group said.
The jihadis have lost several high-ranking commanders in recent weeks, mainly to strikes by the US-led coalition.
On Wednesday, a drone strike near Raqqa killed Abu al-Haija, a Tunisian commander summoned by Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi from Iraq.
Isis has since arrested 35 of its militants suspected of having revealed Haija’s location, according to the Syrian Observatory.
