Middle East
by Nasra Ismail and Biodun Iginla, BBC News Online
The
bodies of more than 230 people believed to have been killed by Islamic
State (IS) have been found in a mass grave in eastern Syria, activists
say.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they were
thought to be members of a tribe that fought the jihadist group in Deir
al-Zour province in the summer.The mass grave was discovered after the Sheitat were allowed to return to their homes by IS leaders, it added.
Last month, the UN said it had received reports of a massacre there in August.
Investigators said it appeared to have been perpetrated by IS in a struggle for control of oil resources near the town of Mohassan.
One survivor described seeing "many heads hanging on walls while I and my family escaped", while locals saw several freshly-dug mass graves.
Video published online also indicated that IS fighters had conducted a mass execution of fighting-age Sheitat tribesmen.
In early November, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi reportedly issued a statement granting members of the tribe permission to return to their homes upon the condition that they did not assemble. They were also told to surrender all weapons and inform on all "apostates" to the group.
All "traitors" would be killed, Baghdadi's statement warned.
On Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory reported that it had been informed by a trusted source that the 230 bodies had been found by returning members of the Sheitat in a mass grave in the desert near al-Kashkiya, in the east of Deir al-Zour province.
The UK-based group said the "vast majority" of the victims had been civilians and that many of them had been executed in cold blood.
The discovery brought the number of Sheitat tribespeople killed during the summer to more than 900, it added. Hundreds more are still missing.
Syria's war
Key background
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Eight steps to understanding the Syrian conflict.
Guide to conflict
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Civil war in numbers
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Mapping war
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IS rise
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Refugee exodus
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Zaatari refugee camp
Features and analysis
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Jeremy Bowen reports from Damascus on the descent of a country into the nightmare of a war with no end in sight
Bowen: Syria's tragedy
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Inside Kobane
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Aleppo in peril
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Up in arms
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'No-one cares'
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'Till the last drop of blood'
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Suffering in west Aleppo
Video and audio
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The BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen assesses the events of the past year in Syria and how they have shaped the Middle East region.
What if the West had intervened in Syria?
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Meet man hunting sons lost to Isis
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'Beaten with sticks, cables and tasers'
From other news sites
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Mail Online UK Mass grave of 230 killed by jihadists found in Syria: monitor 19 mins ago
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International Business Times UK Isis massacre: 230 al-Sheitaat tribesmen found in mass grave in eastern Syria 37 mins ago
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