Sinkhole containing 1,000
ISIS victims uncovered in Iraq’s Tal Afar
19-02-2020
Members of the Iraqi
security forces inspect a mass grave discovered in territory recaptured from
the Islamic State group (ISIS) in 2016. File photo: AFP
Also in Iraq
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A
sinkhole reportedly containing almost 1,000 bodies, including around 30
Yezidis, killed by the Islamic State (ISIS) from mid-2014 to late 2017 has been
uncovered in northern Iraq’s Tal Afar region of Nineveh, a local official
confirmed on Wednesday.
“The pit contains at least 1,000 bodies. They [ISIS] had even dumped victims into the mass grave while they were still alive,” Tal Afar Mayor Qasim Mohammed told Rudaw.
The majority of the victims in the pit, thought to be 150 meters deep, are Shiites from Tal Afar, he added.
ISIS militants attacked the Yezidi homeland of Shingal in August 2014, slaughtering thousands of men and burying them in mass graves. Women and children were abducted and sold into slavery – many facing years of repeated sexual violence.
An official from the Tal Afar Mass Graves Affairs Office told Rudaw the sinkhole contains the bodies of at least 30 Yezidis from Shingal.
Sulaiman Hadi, a Yezidi survivor who witnessed the genocide, accompanied Rudaw’s Tahsin Qasim to the site of the mass grave. He explained how the slain Yezidi victims ended up in the pit.
“The pit contains at least 1,000 bodies. They [ISIS] had even dumped victims into the mass grave while they were still alive,” Tal Afar Mayor Qasim Mohammed told Rudaw.
The majority of the victims in the pit, thought to be 150 meters deep, are Shiites from Tal Afar, he added.
ISIS militants attacked the Yezidi homeland of Shingal in August 2014, slaughtering thousands of men and burying them in mass graves. Women and children were abducted and sold into slavery – many facing years of repeated sexual violence.
An official from the Tal Afar Mass Graves Affairs Office told Rudaw the sinkhole contains the bodies of at least 30 Yezidis from Shingal.
Sulaiman Hadi, a Yezidi survivor who witnessed the genocide, accompanied Rudaw’s Tahsin Qasim to the site of the mass grave. He explained how the slain Yezidi victims ended up in the pit.
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