IS mass graves uncovered
Reality of massacres in Syria and Iraq is exposed as fanatics retreat
AT LEAST 72 mass graves containing thousands of bodies have been uncovered as the territory held by the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria is gradually clawed back.
In Syria, there are locations for 17 mass graves, including one with the bodies of hundreds of members of a single tribe all but exterminated when IS extremists took over their region.
For at least 16 of the Iraqi graves, most in territory too dangerous to excavate, officials do not even guess at the number of dead.
In others, the estimates are based on memories of traumatised survivors, IS propaganda and what can be gleaned from a cursory look at the earth.
Estimates for the total number of victims range from 5,200 to more than 15,000.
Sinjar mountain is dotted with mass graves, some in territory taken back from IS after the group’s onslaught against the Yazidi minority in August 2014, and others in a deadly no-man’s land that has yet to be secured.
IS made no attempt to hide its atrocities – in fact, it boasted of them with videos of beheadings. The killers included the Briton Mohammed Emwazi, who was known as “Jihadi John”.
“We see clear evidence of the intent to destroy the Yazidi people,” said Naomi Kikoler, who recently visited the region for the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. “There’s been virtually no effort to systematically document the crimes perpetrated, to preserve the evidence, and to ensure that mass graves are identified and protected.”
Then there are the graves still out of reach. IS atrocities extend well outside the Yazidi region in northern Iraq.
Satellites offer the clearest look at massacres such as the one at Badoush prison in June 2014 that left 600 male inmates dead. A patch of scraped earth and tyre tracks show the probable killing site, according to exclusive photos obtained by imagery intelligence firm AllSource Analysis.
Of the 72 mass graves documented by Associated Press, the smallest has three bodies, while the largest is believed to hold thousands.
The sites include the northern flank of Sinjar mountain, where five grave sites ring a desert crossroads. It is here that the young men of Hardan village are buried, under thistles and piles of cracked earth. They were killed in the bloody 2014.
Nearly every area freed from IS control has unmasked new mass graves, like one found by the sports stadium in the city of Ramadi.
Many of the graves are easy enough to find, most covered with just a thin coating of earth.
“They don’t even try to hide their crimes,” said Sirwan Jalal, the director of Iraqi Kurdistan’s agency in charge of mass graves.
“They are beheading them, shooting them, running them over in cars, all kinds of killing techniques, and they don’t even try to hide it.”
Steve Wood, of AllSource, added: “Ultimately there are many, many more sites across Iraq and Syria that have yet to be either forensically exhumed or be able to be detailed and there’s quite a bit more research that needs to take place.” IS offensive of August