More than 200 mass graves of IS uncovered victims in Iraq, UN says

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Posted

November 07, 2018 06:38:31

A close up of a skull in a mbad grave in Iraq.

Photo:
A human skull found in a mbad grave containing Yazidis killed by IS militants in Iraq. (AP: Kurdish Mbad Graves Directorate)

The United Nations says more than 200 mbad graves have been controlled by Islamic State (IS).

Key points:

Mbad grave could hold between 6,000 and 12,000 bodies
One survivor played dead when being dumped in a mbad grave and then fled
UN says serious sites are "testament to severe suffering and shocking cruelty"

The serious are mostly in Iraq – the smallest serious holds eight bodies, while the largest one.

The biggest grave is in a sinkhole just south of the city of Mosul, which was held by IS for three years, until mid-2017.

Iraq's Mbad Graves think bodies think 4 4 4 4 4 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – , or the cash, to begin a forensic dig.

The site is one of 202 sites detailed in a new report, based on information from Iraqi authorities.

Sirwan Jalal, Director of Mbad Graves for the Kurdish Regional Government, points to an image of the site of a mbad grave.

Photo:
The mbad grave need to be treated as crime scenes, the UN says. (AP: Maya Alleruzzo, file)

UN teams have been to some of the sites.

In some cases, they were led by survivors of IS death squads.

"In here, I did not die," says one man, who played dead among the bodies of others shot by IS.

"I did not speak, I did not breathe, for 10 minutes or 15 minutes I saw they went to another place, and I went."

It is thought the serious combined hold of the bodies of between 6,000 to 12,000 victims of IS.

The group is thought to have killed more than 30,000 people during its terrifying years in power.

It was filmed and broadcast many of the executions of soldiers, police, journalists, gay people, Iraqi tribespeople that would not bow to the Sunni extremists, and, of course, thousands of Yazidi people from Iraq's north.

At one site, on the grounds of Saddam Hussein's presidential palace in Tikrit, 1,700 Iraqi soldiers and cadets were killed in one day – June 12, 2014.

Very few of the sites have been excavated.

Suki Nagra, the director of the UN's Human Rights Office in Iraq, says the sites need to be protected until they are properly trained by forensic experts.

"The mbad grave sites are documented in the testament to profound suffering and shocking cruelty," she said.

"They need to be protected and treated as criminals scenes.

"Determining the facts about the circumstances that lead to serious mbad will be important both in the mourning process for families of the missing and their journey to securing justice."

It is likely that more serious mbad will be uncovered.

The extremists still cling on small patches of Iraq and Syria, and it is thought they are still holding around 3,000 Yazidis as slaves.