Iraq opens mass grave to identify Daesh victims

Gulf Today Report

Iraqi authorities said on Sunday the remains of 123 people killed by Daesh group militants had been removed from a mass grave in a bid to identify them in the northern province of Nineveh.

The Badush prison massacre was one of the worst crimes Daesh carried out after it seized control of a third of Iraq in a lightning offensive in 2014.

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In June that year, Daesh fighters attacked the northwestern prison, freeing Sunni Muslim inmates and forcing 583 mainly Shiite prisoners into a truck, before driving them to a ravine and shooting them.

Human remains, who were killed by Daesh militants, after being unearthed from a mass grave in Badush, Mosul. AFP

"The remains near Badush Prison are possibly of the jail's security personnel," Nineveh Governor Najm Al Jubouri said in a press conference on Sunday at the site of the mass graves, northwest of the provincial capital Mosul, about 400 km north of Baghdad, according to Indo-Asian News Service.

"Dozens of mass graves have been documented and are waiting to be opened, including the Al Khasfa sinkhole south of Mosul, which is the largest site about a hundred meters deep," Al Jubouri said.

He also called on the UN and other international organizations to help Iraq uncover dozens of mass graves in the province, reports Xinhua news agency.

This photo shows human remains after being unearthed from a mass grave in Iraqi village of Badush. AFP

"The graves of Badush Prison are large, with more than 123 bodies out of 500 having been exhumed so far, and the national team is unable to open and identify mass graves in Iraq alone without the assistance of international expertise," Kareem said.

In July 2017, Iraq formally declared that Mosul, the country's second-largest city, was liberated from Daesh after nearly nine months of fierce fighting to dislodge the extremist militants from their last major stronghold in the country.

The remains of bodies of people who were killed by Daesh militants lie on the ground in Mosul, Iraq. Reuters

After seizing control of the city, Daesh executed some 4,000 Iraqi Security Force prisoners, and dumped their bodies in the single largest known mass grave in Iraq, at the "Khafsa Sinkhole".