ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A mass grave believed to contain the remains of seven Islamic State (ISIS) members were uncovered in the Shingal (Sinjar) district of western Nineveh province earlier this week, local sources said on Friday.
The grave was discovered as residents began returning to the long-abandoned village of Korovi, cleaning up homes damaged during years of conflict. One house appeared to have been used by the jihadists, including as a grave.
“This village was abandoned for a long time. I mean we abandoned it 10 years ago and this house was vacated one or two years before ISIS. After things became better and people returned, he [the homeowner] also wanted to clean up his house. As he cleaned his house, bodies emerged, weapons and paraphernalia of an ISIS group emerged,” Abdulaziz Mizr, a local resident, told Rudaw.
Alongside the remains, weapons and explosives were found.
“They had weapons, suicide belts, bombs,” said Mizr.
An engineering team was called in to deal with the explosives.
“After they came and cleaned and looked at it, they took out their weapons. They also had a suicide vest, they also dismantled that and took it out… After they cleaned, the engineering team said there was nothing left here. They cleared the whole place. The engineering team handed the weapons over to the police,” Mizr said.
The village is now hoping someone from the government will deal with the bodies in the grave.
“We have informed the Mass Graves Exhumation Team and they said they would come to pick them up, but we do not know when they will do that,” Mizr added.
Initial information obtained by Rudaw indicates that the grave contains the remains of seven ISIS fighters.
In June 2014, ISIS took control of large areas in northern and western Iraq. Two months later, in August, the group launched a genocidal assault on the Yazidi community in the Shingal district. Whole villages were emptied as Yazidis fled. They have been slow to return because of ongoing instability and a lack of reconstruction.
