A specialized team documenting mass graves in Raqqa

Aso-Abeer Mohammed

Day by day in the areas were controlled by ISIS, the extent of the brutality of the organization became more clear. More than a year on the liberation of the city of Raqqa (Rashid) of ISIS, who left behind mass destruction and thousands of civilian victims .

Detection of crimes wasn’t stopped, once each day you can find new crime. Evidence of the acts of the terrorist organization everywhere appears to dominate it, even Al Raqqa including the mass graves that are being worked upon and left behind by ISIS.

The initial response team affiliated to Al Raqqa Civil Council is responsible for the exhumation of “unidentified” bodies buried in mass graves during the battle to liberate the city of Raqqa , who were killed by the terrorist organization or buried under the rubble as a result of battles and air strikes.

The Group continues its humanitarian work to this day

According to officials in the initial response team, the team has completed work at one of the most important sites in the team working in al-Raqqa and is preparing to begin research into a new graveyard, one of the major mass graves in Raqqa.

“The team finished its work at the Panorama Cemetery, the seventh of 10 mass graves in the city of Raqqa, after two months of continuous work,” said Yasser Khamis, head of the initial response team.

According to the team’s reports, 793 bodies were recovered, 464 of them were armed, and the others were children, women and civilians.

The total number of bodies recovered so far is about 3,300.

Officials in the response team said that the bodies whose identities had been identified were handed over to their relatives, while the “unidentified” bodies were buried in the cemetery of the martyrs of Tal Al-Bayhaa in Raqqa.

It is scheduled in the next few days, according to the statement of, “Yasser Khamis” to start work on “Fakhikha Graveyard”, which is the second largest mass grave in Raqqa, and the response team estimates that the number of bodies in this cemetery might be between 500 to 1000 bodies.

It’s worth mentioning that the Initial Response Team affiliated to Al Raqqa Civil Council was established in conjunction with the launching the wrath of Euphrates campaign.
At the beginning of its establishment, it consisted of four members of the city of Raqqa who worked voluntarily.

As Syria’s Democratic Forces advanced towards the city of Raqqa, the team developed to include 40 members, including forensic doctors.