Iraq discovers another mass grave near Tikrit

Iraqi authorities have uncovered a mass grave containing the bodies of 158 people believed to have been killed by the Islamic State group.
1 min read
03 April, 2018
A number of mass graves have been discovered in former IS territory [AFP]

Iraqi authorities say they have found the remains of another 158 people in a mass grave outside the city of Tikrit, where the Islamic State group is believed to have massacred hundreds of captured soldiers when it rampaged across the country in the summer of 2014.

Iraq's forensic department said on Monday it has identified a total of 1,153 bodies from the grave.

IS captured an estimated 1,700 soldiers after seizing Tikrit in 2014. The soldiers were trying to flee from nearby Camp Speicher, a former U.S. base just outside the northern city.

IS later circulated graphic images of gunmen shooting the soldiers dead after forcing them to lie face-down in a shallow ditch.

Last month, the bodies of 39 Indian construction workers kidnapped in Iraq in 2014 by the Islamic State group [IS] were found in another mass grave in the northern Iraqi village of Badush.

The workers' bodies were returned to India on Monday.