BEIRUT — Russia's Defense Ministry said on Monday that its troops had found mass graves in Syria's Aleppo with bodies showing signs of torture and mutilation.
Dozens of bodies have been uncovered, according to Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov. He said some bore gunshot wounds.
While the Syrian war is now largely fought with mortars, tanks, and air power, death has come at close quarters as well. Human-rights observers and the media have recorded numerous examples of massacres and organized torture, perpetrated by the government, opposition and the Islamic State group.
The Russian Air Force has helped Syrian President Bashar Assad and its allies to capture Aleppo, Syria's largest city, after weeks of a siege. Russia has since dispatched military police to the city.
Konashenkov also accused rebels, who controlled eastern Aleppo before they were pushed out earlier this month, of laying multiple booby traps and mines across town, endangering the civilian population.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which gathers information on the conflict through local contacts, said Sunday that at least 63 Syrian soldiers and militiamen had been killed by such booby traps in east Aleppo since the government took control of it from rebels last Thursday. The Observatory said the victims were a mix of de-mining personnel and soldiers or militiamen looting the districts.
Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.