Libyan authorities discover 24 unidentified bodies in former IS stronghold

A mass grave containing two dozen unidentified bodies was discovered in the coastal city of Sirte, once controlled by the Islamic State (IS) group, a Libyan government agency said Monday.

The National Authority for Searching and Identifying Missing People said its team recovered 17 of the 24 bodies found under destroyed buildings in the neighborhood of Al-Kambo in Sirte, about 450 kilometers (300 miles) east of the capital, Tripoli.

No details were provided about the potential date when the mass grave was created. However, Sirte city was a stronghold for IS for several years until the militants were expelled in December 2016 by U.S.-backed forces in western Libya. IS has exploited the turmoil across Libya after the 2011 uprising that ended Muammar Gaddafi’s four-decade rule.

The Libyan authority also said Monday that workers with the forensic medicine department took DNA samples from a total of 59 unidentified bodies for testing. It was unclear whether those bodies include the two dozen found in Sirte.

Photos posted by the authority showed remains and bones buried in the ground, what appeared to be a small corpse wrapped in a white piece of cloth, and bones being marked and examined at the forensic department.

The bodies were relocated to a cemetery in Sirte after undergoing examination.

Mass graves have been discovered across over the past few years in Libya, a country that has experienced political turmoil and intense fighting among different armed groups. In March, the UN migration agency sounded the alarm after discovering a mass grave in western Libya that contained the bodies of at least 65 migrants.

Libya is a major route, albeit deadly, for migrants trying to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea from different parts of Africa. Migrants who reach the coast pay to board poorly equipped and crowded ships before they set off on risky sea travels.