Rescuers, activist say site outside Damascus believed to be mass grave

A key Syrian rescue group and an activist said on Wednesday a burial site outside Damascus was likely a mass grave for detainees held under former president Bashar Al Assad and fighters killed in the civil war.

In a vast walled area located near the Baghdad Bridge, some 35 kilometres from the capital, AFP journalists visiting the site saw a long row of graves more than one metre deep, mostly covered with cement slabs.

Several of the slabs had been moved and inside, white bags could be seen stacked over each other with names and numbers written on them. One of the bags contained a human skull and bones.

"We think this is a mass grave — we found an open grave with seven bags filled with bones," said Abdel Rahman Mawas from the White Helmets rescue group, which visited the site several days earlier.