THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Another series of unmarked graves — this one containing 14 individuals from Greece's civil war era — have been dug up in a park in a suburb near the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, local officials said Saturday.
As in the previous tight cluster of unmarked burial pits excavated earlier this year in Neapolis-Sykies, the bodies belong to prisoners who were held in a nearby Byzantine fortress. The prisoners, alleged communists and sympathizers, were executed between 1946 and 1953, according to historians.
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Human remains believed to belong to prisoners executed during or after Greece's 1946-49 Civil War are seen in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Hhuman remains believed to belong to prisoners executed during or after Greece's 1946-49 Civil War are seen in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
The monument for the victims of the World War II National Resistance movement and the Civil War is seen in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
The site where excavation works unearthed human remains believed to belong to dozens of prisoners executed during or after Greece's 1946-49 Civil War, is seen in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Supervising engineer Haris Charismiadis stands next to human remains believed to belong to prisoners executed during or after Greece's 1946-49 Civil War in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
The Yedi Kule castle, also known by its Greek name Eptapyrgio (“seven towers”) was a prison where communist sympathizers were tortured and executed during Greece’s 1946-49 Civil War and immediately afterward.
The burial pits were uncovered on the site of a municipal park undergoing renovation, including the installation of new benches. The graves were not far beneath the surface, Haris Charismiadis, the supervising engineer of the park project, told The Associated Press.
The renovation project is not currently a priority for local mayor Simos Daniilidis. “We insisted on continuing the digging for the graves,” he said. Charismiadis, who said most of the current batch of bodies were found during the past week, is certain there are more people buried nearby, including, probably, under the tarmac of streets adjacent to the park. An archaeologist is assisting in the digging.
In contrast with the 33 bodies found earlier this year, which were lying side by side, the recently found bodies are jumbled, as if thrown randomly, and hastily, in a heap. Torsos and heads are separated.
When Yedi Kule prisoners were executed, their families were often not notified and they didn’t get to retrieve their bodies. Some found out about the fate of their loved ones from newspapers — one family happened upon the news while on the bus they had taken to the prison to bring their relative a fresh change of clothes.
Relatives of the executed have clamored for DNA tests to be done to ascertain the identity of the found bodies. Testing has not begun yet.
Human remains believed to belong to prisoners executed during or after Greece's 1946-49 Civil War are seen in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Hhuman remains believed to belong to prisoners executed during or after Greece's 1946-49 Civil War are seen in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
The monument for the victims of the World War II National Resistance movement and the Civil War is seen in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
The site where excavation works unearthed human remains believed to belong to dozens of prisoners executed during or after Greece's 1946-49 Civil War, is seen in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Supervising engineer Haris Charismiadis stands next to human remains believed to belong to prisoners executed during or after Greece's 1946-49 Civil War in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.
Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”
Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.
Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.
In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.
Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”
Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.
“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.
The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.
The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.
Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)
