DAMASCUS: Syrian troops have found a mass grave containing
the bodies of 42 people executed by Islamic State militants in Palmyra,
as Washington warned the group's leader will eventually "taste justice".
IS has in recent months claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in Brussels and Paris, but has lost ground in Syria and Iraq.
Days after Syrian troops backed by Russian forces recaptured
Palmyra and its ancient ruins, the army "uncovered a mass grave of
officers, soldiers, members of the popular committees (pro-regime
militia) and their relatives," a military source told AFP on Saturday.
Twenty-four of the victims were civilians, including three
children, he said, asking not to be named. "They were executed either by
beheading or by shooting."
In a major symbolic and strategic coup for President Bashar
al-Assad, the Syrian army last Sunday recaptured Palmyra and its UNESCO
World Heritage Site, which IS had overrun in May 2015.
During their nearly 10-month occupation of Palmyra, the
militants executed at least 280 people, according to the Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor which confirmed
the discovery of the mass grave.
Soon after IS stormed Palmyra, it shot dead 25 soldiers in
the ancient Roman theatre. It later released a video of the mass killing
in which the executioners appeared to be children or teenagers.
Syria's five-year war has left at least 270,000 people dead. Few mass
graves have been found, however. Nearly a week on, few of Palmyra's up
to 70,000 residents have returned.
US MULLS MORE SPECIAL FORCES
"People fear reprisal by the regime, and also the mines
planted all over the city by IS," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman
told AFP. "In addition, many houses were flattened by Russian air
strikes before Palmyra was reclaimed," he added.
About 70 kilometres (45 miles) to the west, Syrian troops on
Saturday pounded the IS-held city of Sukhna, which the army wants to
take back in order to consolidate its grip over Palmyra.
"If the regime takes Sukhna, it will use it as a launching
pad for an operation against Deir Ezzor province," in eastern Syria,
along the Iraqi border, which is mostly controlled by IS, Abdel Rahman
said.
The Syrian army has previously said the takeover of Palmyra
would allow it to extend operations against IS in the east and around
Raqa, the militants' de facto capital in the north.
At least 40 mostly foreign IS members, including 18 child
soldiers, were killed in raids Thursday on a village in Deir Ezzor
province, the Observatory said. It was one of the single highest tolls
that IS has suffered in a single strike since it emerged in Syria in
2013, the monitor said.
A US official on Saturday said the Pentagon was mulling over
the possibility of sending more special forces to join the anti-IS
fight in Syria, where the contingent of American fighters current
numbers around 50. "Presumably they would do more of what they're
already doing," said the official, who declined to be named.
BAGHDADI WILL 'TASTE JUSTICE'
IS has lost a string of high-ranking commanders in the past few
weeks, mainly to strikes by the US-led coalition which launched a
campaign against the militants in 2014.
On Wednesday, a drone strike near Raqa, likely by the US-led
coalition, killed Abu al-Haija, a Tunisian commander summoned by IS
leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi from Iraq.
On Friday, the Pentagon warned that Baghdadi himself, who in 2014
appointed himself "caliph" of swathes of Iraq and Syria, would
eventually be hunted down and killed.
"Just like we found his mentor, (Abu Musab) al-Zarqawi and
killed him. Just like we found the grand master of terrorism, Osama bin
Laden, we killed him. We are going to find Baghdadi, and he will taste
justice," military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said.
While the truce has largely held, there have been reports of
violence. The Observatory said regime air strikes on a rebel-held town
east of Damascus Thursday left 33 dead, including 12 children.
Qatar condemned the raids with its foreign ministry warning that Syrian air strikes could "torpedo" the fragile ceasefire.
An unnamed Saudi foreign ministry source added in a
statement that the kingdom condemns "in the strongest terms" the "ugly
massacre by forces of Bashar al-Assad, the criminal."
In Aleppo province, Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra
Front and allied rebels seized the town of Al-Eis which overlooks a road
linking second city Aleppo to Damascus, said the Observatory.
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