Syria's transitional authorities have uncovered a mass grave containing the remains of at least 170 people near the town of Al Otaiba, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
The bodies are believed to be those of people killed in an ambush in 2014, while trying to flee the siege of Eastern Ghouta by forces loyal to Bashar Al Assad, president at the time, a prosecutor told state news agency Sana.
The Assad regime and Iran-backed militias aligned with it claimed the ambush led by Hezbollah operatives was carried out on fighters from the Nusra Front, an Islamist rebel group.
However, the Syrian Human Rights Committee cast doubts on these claims.
Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara led the Nusra Front, which evolved into Hayat Tahrir Al Sham and toppled the Assad regime in a rebel offensive in December.
Judge Mohammed Omar Hajar said authorities were alerted to the human remains by a shepherd. Authorities found skulls, bones, and skeletons at the site, belonging to what they said were civilian victims of the former regime.
He said the ambush involved the detonation of landmines, followed by direct gunfire at civilians. The bodies were then randomly buried in a long trench using heavy machinery in an area thickly covered with mud and reeds, it is claimed.
