Syria’s National Committee for the Missings says it has begun recovering and documenting human remains from a mass grave uncovered in the countryside of Damascus, the committee told SANA in a written statement on Friday.
The committee said the effort, coordinated with civil defense teams and overseen by public prosecutors, began after local police in the town of Otaiba, on Thursday, found skeletal remains on the surface of an agricultural field.
Local officials have asked the residents nearby not to disturb the site and to allow authorities to handle the recovery and forensic work. According to the comittee, the mass grave is linked to a February 27, 2014, massacre in Otaiba, when civilians and defected soldiers were attacked in an ambush, killing dozens and leaving roughly 270 people missing.
The Syrian Public Prosecutor in Damascus countryside, Judge Mohammad Omar Hajar, announced on Thursday the discovery of a mass grave in Otaiba containing the remains of approxivmatly 170 civilians from Eastern Ghouta and nearby areas, who were killed while attempting to escape the siege and famine back in 2014.
