(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) – The United Nations says more than 200 mass graves have been found in parts of Iraq that were controlled by Islamic State (IS).
The graves are mostly in Iraq’s north and range in size — the smallest grave holds eight bodies, while the largest contains thousands.
The biggest grave is in a sinkhole just south of the city of Mosul, which was held by IS for three years, until mid-2017.
Iraq’s Mass Graves Directorate thinks there are around 4,000 bodies in the al-khasfa sinkhole — but no-one knows for sure because excavating it methodically is too dangerous and too expensive: the site is booby-trapped and the group doesn’t have the staff, or the cash, to begin a forensic dig.
The site is one of 202 sites detailed in a new UN report, based on information from Iraqi authorities.
