New mass grave found in Iraq’s western Mosul
This image released by the the Mass Graves Directorate of the Kurdish Regional Government shows a human skull in a mass grave containing Yazidis killed by Islamic State militants in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq in May, 2015. An analysis by The Associated Press has found 72 mass graves left behind by Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria, and many more are expected to be discovered as the group loses territory. (Kurdish Mass Graves Directorate via AP)
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraq security forces found a new mass grave of tens of employees massacred by Islamic State militants, a security source was quoted saying on Monday.
BasNews quoted Cap. Adnan Marwan, from Nineveh province police, saying that security forces found the mass grave near al-Sham gate, an entrance to the western region of Mosul.
He said the remains were of more than 40 people, mostly security personnel and former clerks at the country’s elections commission. They were handed to forensic experts to identify them and their relatives.
As Iraqi troops recaptured areas held by Islamic State militants since 2014, 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, according to government and United Nations figures.
Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State last December, 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 as a number of attacks against civilians and security grew fears of their resurgence.