Mass grave with relics of 50 people found in Nineveh’s Sinjar
Mass grave in Iraq (representational photo)
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) A mass grave containing the relics of at least 50 people was found in western Nineveh, according to a security source quoted on Wednesday.
Shafaq News quoted the source saying that security forces ran into the grave in Sinjar, northwest of Mosul.
The forces await expert teams to arrive and explore the finding, according to the source.
As Iraqi troops recaptured areas held by Islamic State militants since October 2016, they have regularly run into mass graves of civilians and security agents executed by militants for fleeing the group’s havens or collaborating with security forces.
Iraq’s war against the Islamic State displaced millions of civilians both inside and outside the country, and left thousands dead. The United Nations accuses IS of committing deeds that mount to war crimes.
Sinjar is the habitat of the Iraqi Yazidi religious minority, which came under the international spotlights after Islamic State militants took over the region in 2014, massacred and enslaved them in the thousands.
Iraq declared victory over Islamic State last Saturday, ending a three-year war to bring down the group’s self-styled “caliphate” declared from Nineveh’s Mosul in 2014. Security continues to comb recaptured areas for remnant cells.