Iraqi authorities exhumed the remains of at least 100 Kurdish women and children from a mass grave in Muthanna province, southern Iraq. The victims are believed to have been executed during the regime of Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, and they are thought to be from Kalar in Sulaymaniyah province, within the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan in northern Iraq, according to Deutsche Welle.
The mass grave, located near Tal al-Shaikhiya in Muthanna province, was inspected by specialized teams starting in mid-December after its discovery in 2019, revealing signs of a massacre. "A large number of the victims were executed here with bullets from contact shots to the head," said Dia Karim, head of the authority responsible for the exhumation of mass graves, according to Deutsche Welle. He estimated the number of victims to be "at least 100" and noted that exhumation operations are ongoing, so the numbers are not final.
Once the first layer of earth was removed the remains were clearly visible. "We discovered that they belonged to women and children dressed in Kurdish clothing," stated Karim, according to De Tijd. "We are facing difficulties now in this grave because the remains are intermingled with each other, as some mothers were holding their infants when they were killed," pointed out Ahmed Qusay, head of the mass graves excavation team in Iraq, as reported by Asharq Al-Awsat.
The mass graves discovered are linked to the Anfal military campaign executed by Saddam Hussein's regime between 1987 and 1988, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 180,000 Kurds. The Anfal campaign led to mass executions, forced displacements, and chemical weapon attacks against the Kurdish population, shedding light on the brutal crimes committed during this period, as reported by Sat.1.
Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed, the wife of Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, visited the site and expressed the government's commitment to the families of the victims. "This land witnessed, four decades ago, the pain and cries of our loved ones, innocent women and children, whose lives were forcibly taken in one of the most brutal crimes committed by the former regime against the Kurds," she said, according to Infobae. She emphasized that the authorities "will spare no effort, as promised to the families of the victims, to achieve significant progress in this case," adding, "Our priority is the return of the remains to their families once the DNA tests and other identification procedures are completed."
Saddam Hussein, who had been in power since 1979, was overthrown in 2003 after the US-led invasion and was executed in 2006 for crimes against humanity, including genocide for the deaths of approximately 180,000 Kurds during the Anfal campaign. Despite the fall of his regime nearly two decades ago, Iraqi authorities are still discovering mass graves related to both his era and the crimes of the Islamic State organization (ISIS), as reported by Deutsche Welle.
Since 2006, Iraq discovered approximately 289 mass graves, according to the Martyrs Foundation, reported by Asharq Al-Awsat. The United Nations states that about 290,000 people, including 100,000 Kurds, were forcibly disappeared as part of the genocide campaign launched by Saddam Hussein in Iraqi Kurdistan between 1968 and 2003. United Nations estimates also indicate that the jihadist organization left behind more than 200 mass graves likely containing about 12,000 bodies.
Some victims might have even been buried alive, and the process of identifying the remains is complex. "There is a continuous effort by Iraqi authorities to locate and identify the victims of the Anfal campaign, returning their remains to families and preserving historical memory, making the exhumations an important step towards coming to terms with these crimes," reported Sat.1.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq