Iraq urged not to 'hurry' mass grave exhumations

Iraqi authorities have been asked not to carry our hasty exhumations of mass graves left by extremists as this makes identifying victims more difficult, Human Rights Watch urged on Wednesday.

It follows requests from other forensic scientists for Kurdish and Iraqi forces not to make rushed exhumations as they take more territory form the Islamic State group, who have carried out mass killings of soldiers and civilians and buried their bodies in pits.

"The strong desire to exhume the remains of loved ones from [Islamic State group] mass graves is perfectly understandable, but hastily conducted exhumations seriously harm the chances of identifying the victims and preserving evidence," Lama Fakih, HRW's deputy Middle East director, said in a statement.

"While exhuming the remains of those killed at (Khasfa) may be difficult, authorities should do what they can to make sure that those who lost their loved ones there have access to justice," Fakih said, referring to a mass grave site south of Mosul.

The Khasfa site, a large sinkhole where IS reportedly shot victims and pushed them in for disposal, could contain the bodies of hundreds of people executed by the extremists, the rights watchdog said.

But IS has planted explosives at the site, which killed a journalist and three members of Iraqi paramilitary forces in February.

HRW called for Iraqi authorities to fence it off "for the protection of the mass grave and those in the area, until deminers can clear the site".

"If exhumation is possible, the process should be carried out under international standards," the rights group said.

Dozens of mass graves have been discovered in areas retaken from the Islamic State militant group, whose rule in Iraq and Syria has been marked by widespread atrocities including mass summary executions.

The latest was a mass graveyard uncovered last week near the town of al-Saqlawiya, northwest of Fallujah in Anbar province, with 500 gravestones believed to belong to militants killed in clashes with Iraq armed forces.

Hastily conducted exhumations seriously harm the chances of identifying the victims and preserving evidence. - Lama Fakih

Photographs of the graves, which were released by the Iraqi ministry of defence, showed some of the names on the gravestones belong to women.

Earlier this month, paramilitary forces said they discovered a mass grave containing the remains of hundreds of people executed by IS at the Badush prison near Mosul.

IS reportedly killed up to 600 people after seizing Badush in 2014, and was also said to have held hundreds of kidnapped women from Iraq's Yazidi minority at the facility.

IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained much of the territory they lost.