APF Community Contact us
News : Article

Thousands of bodies exhumed from mass graves

Graphic: IHCHR member Fadhil al-Gharawi

More than 4,000 bodies have been exhumed from mass graves in Nineveh province since the defeat of ISIS, according to Iraq's national human rights body

The Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) says 4,536 bodies have been exhumed from mass graves in Nineveh province since the defeat of ISIS.

IHCHR member Fadhil al-Gharawi said in a statement that ISIS committed several mass executions and blew up residential areas during its rule and in the lead up to its defeat.

Gharawi added the civil defense team in the Nineveh province exhumed more than 2,665 identified corpses of civilians throughout the province.

A further 1,871 unidentified individuals have been exhumed, Rudaw Media reported.

Of the identified bodies, some 851 are children.

Al-Gharawi called on the government to bolster efforts to speed up the process of opening mass graves in Nineveh.

A mass grave in the village of Kasr Mihrab near Tal Afar was found to contain the remains of 18 Yezidis.

Many such mass graves remain uninvestigated. Efforts to exhume bodies were disrupted by events in October 2017 when Iraqi forces and Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitias took over several of the disputed territories.

The ensuing instability has obstructed the process.

Date: 19 October 2018

Source: Rudaw Media


Image credits

  1. IHCHR member Fadhil al-Gharawi - Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights