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Police forces discover new mass grave in western Iraq

Tuesday, 26 January 2016 5:48 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 26 January 2016 5:54 AM ]

Members of Iraq's Izadi minority search a mass grave on February 3, 2015 in the village of Sinuni in Sinjar. (Photo by AFP)

Iraqi police have found a new mass grave in the western province of Anbar, containing the remains of scores of people believed to have been executed by Takfiri Daesh militants.

A police source said security forces uncovered the grave as they were combing the Jamiah district of the provincial capital of Ramadi on Monday, Arabic-language al-Sumaria television said.

The source said the mass grave is thought to contain the remains of as many as 50 civilians and soldiers killed by Daesh just before Ramadi was fully liberated by the Iraqi army forces on December 28.

Many of the bodies bear signs of torture or other violence, including bullet wounds, and some have even been dismembered and decapitated.

The discovery came more than a week after Iraqi Kurdish fighters found a mass grave in the country’s northwestern town of Sinjar, two months after retaking the town from Daesh terrorists. The mayor of Sinjar, Mahma Khalil, said the bodies of children and women were found among those buried.

A picture taken on February 3, 2015 shows a skull found in a mass grave near the village of Sinuni, northwest of Sinjar. (Photo by AFP)

Iraqi officials found three new mass graves in Sinjar, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Baghdad, in late November. They contained 80 to 100 bodies, thought to be those of members of Iraq’s Izadi minority group.

On November 28, a bomb-rigged mass grave, believed to be containing 123 bodies, was uncovered west of Sinjar.

Violence has racked northern and western parts of Iraq ever since Daesh Takfiris launched an offensive in June 2014, and took parts of the country. The militants have been committing crimes against all ethnic and religious communities in Iraq, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.

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