Date: Feb 16, 2018 Source: The Daily Star Syria troops find mass grave west of Raqqa: state media Agence France Presse DAMASCUS: Syrian troops have uncovered a mass grave containing the remains of more than 30 people killed by Daesh (ISIS) in Raqqa province, state media reported Friday. It is the third such find by the army in recent months in territory formerly held by the militants west of their onetime bastion. "In cooperation with specialists, an army unit came across a mass grave of civilians and combatants executed by the Islamic State group [Daesh] in western parts of Raqqa province," state news agency SANA reported. A member of the civil defense told the news agency that a total of 34 bodies had been exhumed from the grave near the town of Al-Rathman. The remains were transported to the military hospital in neighboring Aleppo province to be identified. Government troops control the southwest of Raqqa province, but the rest of it, including the provincial capital, is held by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces who overran the militant’s infamous bastion in October. In late December, Syrian troops found two mass graves in the west of the province. State media later reported that more than 150 bodies had been exhumed from them. Daesh, which proclaimed a "caliphate" over swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, has now lost almost all the land it once controlled. It has been held responsible for multiple atrocities during its reign of terror, including mass executions and decapitations.