SYRIAN officials have discovered mass graves containing the bodies of people executed by members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group near the country’s northwestern city of Raqqah.
Head of Raqqah Medical Association, Jamal al-Isa, told Syria’s official news agency SANA on Wednesday that local authorities made the discovery of 200 bodies in the al-Fukheikha agricultural suburb of the province, located about 455 kilometres (283 miles) north east of the capital Damascus.
On October 31st, 2018, Syrian government forces discovered a mass grave containing the bodies of more than 1,500 people, who had lost their lives when the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh terror outfit carried out airstrikes against Raqqah.
Isa told the pro-government and Arabic-language al-Watan newspaper at the time that the discovery was made in the Panorama district of the city, which served as the former de facto capital of the Daesh Takfiris.
‘Every day, more crimes are being uncovered which were perpetrated by the Daesh terrorist group and the illegal US-led military alliance in Raqqah,’ he added.
The head of Raqqah Medical Association noted that the US-led coalition conducted blind bombardment on the north western Syrian city after Daesh terrorists withdrew, and destroyed 85 per cent of it.
Syrian Forensic Medicine General Director Zaher Hajo told al-Watan newspaper in early January last year that Daesh Takfiris had executed 10,000 people and buried their bodies in mass graves across Raqqah.
More than 1,500 bodies of civilians have been found in a newly-discovered mass grave in Syria’s northern province of Raqqah.
He stressed that his colleagues had confirmed the presence of 4,000 bodies in one single grave.
Hajo went on to say that Syrian Health Minister Nizar Yazigi has ordered the formation of a committee in order to collect the remains of the victims and transfer them to a military hospital in Aleppo.
The US-sponsored and Kurdish-led militants of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on October 20, 2017 that it had ‘liberated’ Raqqah after driving out Daesh terrorists from the city.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has, meanwhile, said that the SDF’s purported operations in Raqqah have killed civilians and damaged infrastructure in the city.
‘When you’re killing around 1,200 civilians — nearly half of them women and children — and destroying 80 per cent of the city, that’s not liberating Raqqah,’ Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the SOHR, once told Arab News daily newspaper.
- With the participation of official, youth and popular figures, a national activity was held on Tuesday in front of the building of Homs Governorate under the title ‘Come On Together’ to sign the longest letter of love and loyalty to the occupied Syrian Golan and its people and their steadfastness in the face of the Zionist entity’s hostile practices.
The activity started from Sweida province under the title: ‘The Golan is a Syrian Arab Land and it will Remain So,’ and it arrived in Daraa province on Sunday and reached Homs on Wednesday as it will later tour different provinces to collect about 3 million signatures.
The activity will be concluded by delivering the letter to the UN Representative in Damascus to express rejection of US President Donald Trump’s declaration on the Golan, and to affirm standing by people of the Golan.
The event is organised in implementation of an initiative by ‘Come On Together’ team which embraces 14 women from different provinces who will collect signatures on a 1000-meter-long and 15-meter-wide roll of paper.
Participants in the event affirmed that the Golan will return to the homeland thanks to the steadfastness and determination of the Syrian people.
They hailed the sacrifices of the Golan’s people and their adherence to their Syrian Arab identity despite of the arbitrary measures of the Zionist entity against them.
- President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday received Ali Asghar Khaji, Senior Aide of the Iranian Foreign Minister for Special Political Affairs, and the accompanying delegation.
President al-Assad was briefed by Khaji on the developments of the Iranian nuclear agreement after Washington backed out of it, and the recent US escalatory positions which seek to destabilise the region and increase tension in it, with President al-Assad affirming Syria’s support for Iran and its leadership in defending their people’s rights against all threats and acts that violate the basis of international law.
Talks during the meeting touched on the war on terrorism in Syria and the responses to the attacks carried out by terrorist organisations in Idlib against civilians in neighbouring areas, as well as developments in the political track, the upcoming round of Astana talks, and the situation in the regional and international arenas.
Talks also discussed the Syrian-Iranian relations, with Khaji asserting the strength of the strategic relations between the two countries, affirming Iran’s determination to continue bolstering them in all fields to serve the interests of both sides, adding that the Iranian leadership and people always have and always will support Syria until it liberates all its territory and rebuilds what has been destroyed by war.
The meeting was attended by Presidential Political and Media Advisor Bouthaina Shaaban, Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister Fayssal Mikdad, and Director of the Asia Department at the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry Shafiq Dayyoub.
In the same context, Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem met Ali Asghar Khaji.
The two sides affirmed the need for continuing coordination and consultations between the two countries regarding upcoming international meetings on the political process in Syria, stressing the need to continue bolstering the strategic relations between Syria and Iran in all fields, and to continue fighting terrorism.
They also discussed the situation in the region and recent developments after the recent US escalation in the Gulf against Iran, and the US economic terrorism against Syria and Iran, with the two sides expressing matching viewpoints and positions regarding all issues.
- Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva Hussam Eddin Ala has said that the briefing by the head of the international investigation committee on Syria included baseless allegations on the situation in Idlib that show a selective approach.
In a statement on Tuesday before the Human Rights Council for discussing human rights in Syria, Ala said that the so-called ‘interactive dialogue’ with the committee is lacking as the time allocated to Syria is restricted compared to the time given to the committee to make claims and accusations, all while depriving Syria of the sufficient time to refute those claims.
He said the current form of the dialogue only seeks to defame Syria, criticising the handful of states that take over the discussion and promote positions that are contradictory and employ double standards. This is mainly done by Britain.
Ala said the aforementioned briefing is recycled and fails to address the suffering of Syrians caused by terrorism and sanctions, and instead it promotes the positions of the states that control the committee to continue levelling false accusations at the Syrian government.
He asserted that the briefings allegations about the situation in Idlib are baseless, and that the refusal of the committee to hold the US and the militias under its control responsible for the terrible conditions of the civilians held against their will at al-Rukban and al-Houl camps is evidence of its selective approach.
Ala pointed out to the recent Israeli attack on Syria which claimed the lives of four civilians including an infant girl, injured 21 others, and caused damage to houses and properties, saying that the investigation committee finds no reason to investigate or condemn such breaches of international humanitarian law, much like how it ignores the many airstrikes carried out by the US, France, and Britain which claimed the lives of thousands of civilians and caused massive destruction in Raqqah city.
He said discussions will remain pointless unless they address the factors that cause humanitarian suffering accurately, primarily terrorism and the role of the states that sponsor terrorism and impose sanctions on the Syrian people.
Ala said the accusations claiming that the Syrian state and its allies deliberately target civilians and civilian facilities in Idlib are baseless, as operations there target terrorism with precise and calculated strikes, noting that over 90% of Idlib and its surroundings has terrorist groups affiliated to and led by Jabhat al-Nusra, which attack civilians indiscriminately in Aleppo, Hama, and Lattakia.
He said that the duty of the Syrian state is to liberate its lands and rid its people of terrorists, asserting that the Syrian government has taken all possible precautions to protect civilians and infrastructure, and that no hospitals or schools have been targeted as some impartial sides claim.
