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Report: Talks to End US-Led Coalition in Iraq May Take until After US Elections 

Maj. Gen. Kenneth P. Ekman, Deputy Commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, signs documents with Brigadier General Salah Abdullah during a handover ceremony of Taji military base from US-led coalition troops to Iraqi security forces, in the base north of Baghdad, Iraq August 23, 2020. (Reuters)
Maj. Gen. Kenneth P. Ekman, Deputy Commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, signs documents with Brigadier General Salah Abdullah during a handover ceremony of Taji military base from US-led coalition troops to Iraqi security forces, in the base north of Baghdad, Iraq August 23, 2020. (Reuters)
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Report: Talks to End US-Led Coalition in Iraq May Take until After US Elections 

Maj. Gen. Kenneth P. Ekman, Deputy Commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, signs documents with Brigadier General Salah Abdullah during a handover ceremony of Taji military base from US-led coalition troops to Iraqi security forces, in the base north of Baghdad, Iraq August 23, 2020. (Reuters)
Maj. Gen. Kenneth P. Ekman, Deputy Commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, signs documents with Brigadier General Salah Abdullah during a handover ceremony of Taji military base from US-led coalition troops to Iraqi security forces, in the base north of Baghdad, Iraq August 23, 2020. (Reuters)

Talks between the United States and Iraq on ending the US-led military coalition in the country may not be concluded until after US presidential elections in November, a senior Iraqi government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Washington and Baghdad in January initiated talks to reassess the US-led coalition in Iraq, formed in 2014 to help fight ISIS after the extremist group overran large parts of the country.

The decision came after US forces and Shiite armed groups had engaged in tit-for-tat attacks amid regional conflict linked to Israel's war in Gaza.

Those attacks have now ceased for over a month to allow breathing space for the negotiations.

Backed by Shiite parties and armed groups, the government in Baghdad, a rare ally of both Tehran and Washington, is trying to prevent the country again becoming a battlefield for foreign powers.

The technical talks via a joint military commission are seen by politicians as a way to buy time amid differing views over how the countries' military relationship should evolve.

Hardline Iraqi Shiite armed groups have called for an immediate exit of US forces while more moderate Shiite factions and Sunni and Kurdish parties are concerned their departure could lead to a power vacuum.

Washington says the coalition's mission needs to be reassessed in light of ISIS's 2017 defeat in Iraq but does not view the talks as necessarily entailing a withdrawal of US military advisers from the country.

The US invaded Iraq in 2003, toppling President Saddam Hussein before exiting the country in 2011.

The US returned in 2014 at the head of an international coalition to fight ISIS and there are currently around 2,500 American troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria on an advise and assist mission.

"I don't think the Americans want a full withdrawal. That is clear," former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a moderate member of Iraq's ruling pro-Iran Shiite Coordination Framework, told journalists last week.

"Also, I do not thing there is an Iraqi desire among the political forces to dispense entirely with the Americans - even though there is a feeling today that their presence at this time causes more problems than solutions."

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Syria Rescuers, Activist Say Site outside Damascus Believed to Be Mass Grave

This aerial view shows a site believed to be a mass grave near Baghdad Bridge in Adra, about 35 kilometers east of Damascus, on December 25, 2024. (AFP)
This aerial view shows a site believed to be a mass grave near Baghdad Bridge in Adra, about 35 kilometers east of Damascus, on December 25, 2024. (AFP)
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Syria Rescuers, Activist Say Site outside Damascus Believed to Be Mass Grave

This aerial view shows a site believed to be a mass grave near Baghdad Bridge in Adra, about 35 kilometers east of Damascus, on December 25, 2024. (AFP)
This aerial view shows a site believed to be a mass grave near Baghdad Bridge in Adra, about 35 kilometers east of Damascus, on December 25, 2024. (AFP)

A key Syrian rescue group and an activist told AFP 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 kilometers (22 miles) from the capital, AFP journalists visiting the site saw a long row of graves more than one meter 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.

He told AFP by telephone that the bags, six of which bore names, were "taken to a secure location", adding that "necessary procedures were begun for DNA testing".

He said if additional graves had been exposed it meant other people may have been searching the site, warning people to "stay away from graves and let the relevant authorities handle them".

The site, near the Adra industrial area northeast of the capital, is less than 20 kilometers from the Saydnaya prison.

Diab Serriya, from the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Sednaya Prison, said the site was first identified in 2019 through "testimony of an intelligence personnel member who had deserted".

Satellite imagery suggests the site was in use from 2014, he said.

"Probably this grave contains detainees but also former regime or opposition fighters killed in battle," he told AFP by telephone.

The notorious Saydnaya complex, the site of extrajudicial executions, torture and forced disappearances, epitomized the atrocities committed against Assad's opponents.

Serriya said "the bags of bones were probably brought from other graves", adding that "the road to discovering who is buried here will be long".

The doors of Syria's prisons were flung open after an opposition alliance ousted Assad this month, more than 13 years after his brutal repression of anti-government protests triggered a war that would kill more than 500,000 people.

The fate of tens of thousands of prisoners and missing people remains one of the most harrowing legacies of the conflict.

Mohammed Ali from the Adra municipal council denied residents were aware of the site, which is located near a Syrian army facility.

"It was forbidden to approach it or take photos as it was a military zone," he told AFP.