Iraq
Mohammed Mahdi, father of one of the victims speaks to Rudaw on February 13, 2025. Photo: Rudaw
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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Families of Peshmerga who disappeared a decade ago are hoping that they may finally get some closure after Iraqi forensic officials uncovered the remains of 17 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters killed by the Islamic State (ISIS).
Mohammed Mahdi has been looking for his son Barzan for 10 years.
“All our days are bad because whatever news or calls we get late at night makes our hearts jump. I would be proud to get his body back, do you understand? His martyrdom is a source of pride. If my other three sons and I were killed for this land, we would be proud,” he told Rudaw on Thursday.
He is hoping that his son will be identified in a mass grave discovered in Kirkuk’s western Hawija district.
“The remains found belong to 17 members of the Peshmerga,” confirmed Yasmine Mounther, head of the Mass Graves Department - an affiliate of Iraq’s Department of Forensic Medicine - in a press briefing on Thursday.
For Sherwan Qadir, whose brother is another missing Peshmerga, it will be a relief to be able to mourn properly.
“Thank God, we are very hopeful that these bodies have been found. We hope that they are the bodies of our sons because we all hope for a body, a grave that we can visit to get comfort. Their mothers, their fathers, their brothers, all want to have the remains of their sons. We ask the government to bring the bodies back to us as soon as possible,” he said.
In an effort to identify the remains, Mounther explained that a two-day campaign was held in the Kurdistan Region’s capital, Erbil, to collect blood samples from families who may be related to the Peshmerga fighters. Additional samples will be collected from potential relatives in the coming week.
ISIS captured large swathes of territory in Iraq’s north and west in 2014. The Kurdish Peshmerga forces fought on numerous fronts against ISIS to prevent the group’s advance into regions administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Baghdad announced the group’s defeat in 2017.
The Hawija district, where the mass grave was discovered, had long been a stronghold for ISIS and was one of the last jihadist-controlled territories in Iraq.
Over 2,000 Peshmerga fighters were killed and more than 10,000 others were wounded in the years-long war against ISIS, according to KRG figures.
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