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A mass grave containing the bodies of women and children has been unearthed near a military headquarters in southern Syria, a rights activist told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Monday, as similar sites were reported discovered near the country’s capital.

Fifteen bodies—among them women, children and opponents of the Assad regime—were found buried near Izraa, a town in Daraa province, some of them dating back more than a decade, Asim al-Zoubi told the news outlet.

It is that thought that there are other graves in the area and search operations remain underway, he added.

Several suspected mass graves were reported to have been unearthed around Damascus in recent days. Opposition activists claimed that 150 graves had been discovered in the Husayniyya area near the capital. circulated on social media showed rows of deep trenches that were allegedly unearthed in the area.

In another incident, a mass grave has been reported found in the Baghdad Bridge area of Damascus. of white sacks containing human remains were distributed online. Among the victims buried there were people who had died at the country’s notorious Saydnaya prison, Turkish news agency Anadolu said.

Journalists have reported finding bones in Tadamon, an area of the capital which became infamous in 2022 when a video of regime forces perpetrating a mass execution surfaced online. The incident, which took place in 2013, saw at least 41 civilians massacred.

The downfall of the Assad regime has revealed the horrific conditions suffered by detainees held within the regime’s prisons and is exposing the extent of the human rights abuses committed by government forces. Thousands of Syrians were imprisoned without trial, and often held in squalid conditions and subject to torture.

At least 60,000 people were killed in Syrian detention centres during the war, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.