The process of uncovering mass graves in the Sinjar district, containing the remains of Yazidi victims brutally killed by ISIS terrorists in 2014, is ongoing.
Nechirvan Hussein, spokesperson for the Investigation and Evidence Gathering Agency of the Kurdistan Regional Government, stated that “the Iraqi National Team, in collaboration with the agency in Kurdistan, has commenced unearthing the Hamadan cemetery situated on the outskirts of Sinjar city.”
The cemetery is said to contain the remains of around 30 victims from the region. Hussein further clarified that the remains would be transported to Baghdad for forensic analysis, in order to ascertain their identities and subsequently hand them over to their families.
According to the most recent statistics from the Investigation and Evidence Gathering Agency of the Kurdistan Regional Government, there are currently 114 mass graves in the Sinjar area and its environs, with 32 graves already opened. To date, the remains of 522 victims have been recovered, with the identities of 170 of those victims identified, and their remains handed over to their families for proper burial in specially designated graves in Sinjar.
The opening of mass graves has been a slow process, with each site posing its unique challenges, while it serves as a painful reminder of the atrocities committed by ISIS terrorists.