Shafaq News – Damascus (Updated on Sep 21, at 2:00)

Operations to exhume a mass grave in the Damascus countryside have started, Syria’s National Authority for the Missing announced on Friday.

In a statement, the authority said the move followed reports that skeletal remains were found exposed on the surface of farmland in al-Atiba village.

Officials appealed to citizens not to approach or tamper with the remains, stressing that documentation and recovery must be handled exclusively by specialized teams “to safeguard the dignity of the martyrs and preserve evidence linked to the rights of victims and their families.”

The authority linked the grave to the February 27, 2014 "massacre, when forces of the Bashar Al-Assad regime ambushed residents in the village, killing dozens of civilians and defected soldiers and leaving about 270 people missing."