DOZENS of bodies have been exhumed from mass graves in the Bekaa Valley, close to the site of the former Syrian military intelligence headquarters in Lebanon.

The remains of 25 people, consisting of bones and skulls, tattered clothing and at least one army uniform, were stuffed in sacks and buried at two sites on a small rocky hill beside a mosque about two miles from the border with Syria.

A third mass grave has been located near by and will be excavated this week by Lebanese soldiers and forensic experts. The Lebanese authorities were tipped off about the graves by residents of the ethnic Armenian town of Anjar, where Syrian military intelligence was based until April, when Syria disengaged from Lebanon after mass demonstrations in Beirut and international pressure.

Ghazi Aad, the head of Solide, which works to release Lebanese detainees in Syrian jails, told The Times: “These are not the only mass graves in Lebanon. There are others around the offices of Syrian military intelligence. We need to have an international commission of inquiry to investigate these atrocities.”

Hundreds of Lebanese rounded up by the Syrians during their 29-year presence passed through the notorious interrogation centre and prison known as the “onion factory”, a cluster of farm buildings set in flat farmland near Anjar, before being transferred to jails in Syria. Lebanese human rights activists say that more than 250 are still in Syrian prisons, although the Syrian authorities have denied that any prisoners remain.

Last month 12 bodies were dug up from a grave in the Defence Ministry compound in the Yarze suburb of Beirut. They are thought to have been Lebanese soldiers killed by Syrian troops in October 1990.

The discovery of the mass graves is certain to worsen relations between Beirut and Damascus, poor since the assassination in February of Rafik Hariri, a former Prime Minister, who died in a bomb blast for which Syria is being blamed. Five senior Syrian officials, all believed to be intelligence officers, were reported to have left Damascus yesterday for Vienna where they will be interviewed by the United Nations commission investigating Hariri’s death.

Detlev Mehlis, the German prosecutor who has headed the UN commission since June, is to update the Security Council on his progress by December 15, when his mandate expires. The Lebanese Government has asked the UN to extend the mandate by six months. In his initial report in October Herr Mehlis said that there was “converging evidence” pointing at Lebanese and Syrian involvement in Hariri’s death.

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