Mass grave containing bodies of 80 Ezidi women discovered in Shingal

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – A mass grave containing the bodies of 80 Yezidi (Ezidi) women was discovered in Sinjar (Shingal), local authorities said on Friday.

The mass grave, most likely dug by the Islamic State (IS), was discovered by security officials in the area on Thursday.

Haji Kanduz, an official at the scene of the mass grave, told local Iraqi media that IS militants buried alive some of the Ezidi women they had kidnapped.

“Young women were [taken], and the old and disabled ones were buried,” he added.

According to Kanduz, security officials were continuing to search the area for other bodies belonging to Ezidi victims.

Mass graves containing the remains of the inhabitants of Shingal, whose owners were killed in cold blood by IS militants, are regularly discovered.

On Dec. 15, two mass graves containing the remains of dozens of Ezidis—mostly women and children killed by the extremist group—were found in Shingal town, west of Mosul.

In early December, another two separate graves containing the remains of at least 140 people were uncovered in the same region.

Following their emergence in 2014, IS invaded the Ezidi-populated town and committed one of the most egregious massacres in recent history, murdering and kidnapping thousands.

Men and boys were killed immediately while women and girls were abducted and kept as sex slaves.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces, backed by the US-led coalition, liberated the town from the militant group the following year.

According to United Nations estimates, there are about 3,000 Ezidis who remain unaccounted for since the genocide.