Rebels from the Free Syria Army have reported a discovery of over 100 executed bodies, in what appears to be one of the largest massacres of the ongoing conflict in the country.
Video footage from the scene shows rows of bodies, mainly of young men and boys, tied with their hands behind their back and a single bullet wound to the head.
The bodies are currently being pulled out of a waterway in the south of Aleppo by rebel forces. However, Mamnoud Hassoun, 26, a rebel fighter, was quoted by the Telegraph as saying,
“It is hard to get the bodies because they are in the view of government snipers... When the snipers saw there were Free Syrian Army pulling out the bodies they started shooting.”
The Syrian government meanwhile blamed "terrorist gangs" for the massacre stating that the recovering of bodies by rebels is an attempt to "cover for their crimes". A statement from a regime official said,
"We will disclose the identities of those killed as soon as we are able to secure the bodies, which is a difficult process since the area is in the hands of terrorist groups".