UN says 16 mass graves found in previously IS-held Sinjar

UN says 16 mass graves found in previously IS-held Sinjar

PanARMENIAN.Net - The UN human rights office in Iraq said on Friday, December 4, that it has received reports of 16 mass graves discovered near the town of Sinjar after it was liberated from the Islamic State group last month, the Associated Press reports.

The reports were the latest among many instances of mass graves being uncovered in territory wrested from IS militants in Iraq and Syria — thousands of people have been killed in summary and extrajudicial killings by the Sunni militants and the graves have been a dark testimony to the group's brutality.

There were no immediate details about how many bodies might be inside the newly found Sinjar graves, according to spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

She did not provide the source of the reports but said that her office has called on Iraq's government to investigate.

Sinjar Mayor Mahma Khalil told the Associated Press that a total of 17 mass and collective graves have been uncovered inside Sinjar and on the outskirts of the town. He did not give any further information or estimates on the number of bodies the graves could hold.

The IS group captured Sinjar during its rampage across northern Iraq in the summer of 2014 and killed and captured thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority, including women who were forced into sexual slavery. The extremist group's rapid expansion in Iraq's north, which included a push toward the city of Irbil — the regional capital of Iraq's Kurdish north — spurred the U.S.-led coalition to launch a campaign of airstrikes against IS in Iraq and later Syria in August 2014.

The UN uses the term mass grave to refer to a location where three or more victims of what the world body defines as extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions are buried — not those who have been killed in combat, attacks such as bombings or armed confrontation.

Pouilly, the UN office's spokeswoman, also expressed concern about increasing discrimination, harassment and violence against Sunni Arabs by other groups in parts of Iraq that have been freed from IS' control, as Sinjar was in mid-November.

She cautioned that many Sunnis who once lived under IS control were forced to obey the extremist group at the risk of punishment or death. Now freed, they are "perceived as having supported" the militant group, which is unfair, Pouilly added.

Among the first mass graves uncovered in Sinjar — within days of IS forces being pushed out of the town — was one near the town's center that has been estimated to contain the bodies of 78 elderly women, and another, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) outside of Sinjar, with between 50 and 60 bodies of men, women and children, according to Qasim Samir, the Sinjar head of intelligence.

 Top stories
Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive.
In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million).
The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot".
The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads.
Partner news
---