The bodies of about 700 people killed in the wake of World War II have been discovered in a mass grave in Slovenia, 65 years after they were herded into the woods and slain by antifascists seeking revenge on Nazi collaborators, an official said Tuesday.
Marko Strovs, who heads the government's commission for exhuming mass graves, told The Associated Press that researchers examined a pit in a forest near the town of Prevalje in the country's northeast last week and found the remains.
"Based on what we've heard from local people and what we've seen so far, there could be about 700 bodies buried inside," Strovs said.
Thousands of Nazi collaborators were executed by communist-backed antifascists after the war; in many cases, victims also included innocent civilians. Communist authorities in the former Yugoslavia, which included Slovenia until it dissolved in 1991, played down or denied postwar slayings, though other mass graves have since been found.
Strovs said the 21-meter (70-foot)-long by 3-meter (10-feet)-wide pit contains the bodies of men and women. Initial findings are that their hands were tied behind their backs.
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