Mass grave found in Iraqi city previously held by Daesh

An archaeologist from Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government’s Erbil Archaeology Department holds a skull found during an excavation work in Erbil, Iraq on March 21, 2017 (Hemn Baban/Anadolu Agency)

Iraqi troops discovered on Friday a mass grave containing the bodies of 40 people in the Iraqi city of Al-Ramadi, which was held by Daesh in 2015.

Speaking to reporters, Ammar Nuri al-Dulaimi, director of the Martyrs Committee, said that the grave was found in Altash neighbourhood in the south of Al-Ramadi, in the centre of Al-Anbar Province.

He said that the bodies had bullet wounds in the heads, indicating that they were most likely executed by Daesh militants when they controlled the region.

Al-Dulaimi added that the bodies were found in an advanced state of decomposition, making their identification extremely difficult. They were, however, removed to a hospital for forensic tests.

The city was recaptured from Daesh in December 2015 after it had fallen to the militants in the summer of that year.

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.