Syrian Rebels: 20 Bodies Found in Aleppo’s Quelq River

Bodies Found in Same Spot as Previous Massacres

by Jason Ditz, March 10, 2013

Syrian rebels reported 20 more bodies have been found if Aleppo’s Quwelq River, turning up in the rebel-held Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood. They are insisting that the bodies were killed by security forces and dumped in the water.

The bodies were found in the exact same spot as a previous incident in late January, in which locals found 81 bodies of executed young men who were previously reported kidnapped by the rebel al-Nusra Front.

Rebels insist that “most” of the time that bodies have been found in that river, it is because they were killed upstream in a government-held neighborhood in central Aleppo. They say bodies are found regularly when the water level rises.

As with the past incident, all of the slain were reportedly young men, many of them were bound and gagged and a lot of them were shot. Such incidents have become increasingly common across Syria, and the lack of media on the ground leaves it often unclear who is killing them.

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