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French Interior Minister to Discuss Security with Tunisia, Algeria

President Emmanuel Macron (right) and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin in Nice, October 29, 2020. (AFP)
President Emmanuel Macron (right) and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin in Nice, October 29, 2020. (AFP)
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French Interior Minister to Discuss Security with Tunisia, Algeria

President Emmanuel Macron (right) and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin in Nice, October 29, 2020. (AFP)
President Emmanuel Macron (right) and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin in Nice, October 29, 2020. (AFP)

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin will visit Tunisia and Algeria later this week to discuss security matters with his counterparts there, Darmanin told BFM TV on Monday.

Concerns over security and immigration have increased in France after a fatal knife attack at a church in Nice last week.

France's chief anti-terrorism prosecutor has said the man suspected of carrying out the Nice attack was a Tunisian born in 1999 who had arrived in Europe on Sept. 20 in Lampedusa, the Italian island off Tunisia.

French President Emmanuel Macron asked Darmanin to go to Tunis to discuss the fight against terrorism, the Elysee announced on Sunday.

The decision was announced after a telephone interview on Saturday between the French president and his Tunisian counterpart Kais Saied, who “expressed his solidarity with France after the terrorist acts,” said the presidency.

The two leaders “agreed to strengthen” Franco-Tunisian “cooperation in the fight against terrorism”. They notably “addressed the sensitive issue of the return of Tunisians with the obligation to leave French territory (OQTF), in priority those listed S”, added the Elysee.

On Saturday evening, the Tunisian presidency indicated that Macron and Saied had also discussed “the issue of illegal migration and solutions to be found together to deal with this phenomenon, which is worsening”.

Tunisian Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi called on his interior and justice ministers to fully cooperate with the French authorities in the investigation.

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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.