Iraq to exhume graves of ISIS victims in Makhmour

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi authorities on Sunday prepared to begin exhuming an unknown number of graves of Islamic State (ISIS) victims in Makhmour despite security risks as forces launched anti-terror operations elsewhere in the country. 

A team from Nineveh province including civil defense and counterterrorism units arrived in Kodila village to start the process of uncovering victims of atrocities committed by ISIS during their reign of terror when they controlled vast stretches of the country between 2014 and 2017. 

The exhumation process is complicated by the presence of unexploded bombs and landmines in the vicinity of the village, posing a significant risk on the technical team working to uncover the corpses. ISIS militants are also active in the area at night as it falls in a security vacuum between Erbil and Baghdad. 

“We received a provincial order to go to Kodila village in Makhmour … to exhume the unidentified victims. We do not know the number [of the victims] but we will go to the location of the crime and wait for final orders to exhume the corpses,” Captain Mahmood Abdulmuhsin told Rudaw’s Lamya Rasul. 

“The preliminary information we have are that the corpses are unidentified and not residents of the village,” he said, adding that the sensitivity of the process means it requires many approvals from Baghdad. 

Rudaw could not identify or speak to the technical team due to concerns for their safety.

ISIS swept through vast swathes of Iraq in 2014 and declared a so-called caliphate in a brazen offensive that saw the terror group take control of several Iraqi cities, including the second largest northern city of Mosul. It was declared territorially defeated in 2017.  

During its brutal reign, the group committed untold atrocities on non-Muslims and Shiite Muslims, such as genocide, sexual slavery, and massacres. 

The militants are particularly active in stretches of land disputed by the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which include a security vacuum that includes parts of Kirkuk, Salahaddin, and Diyala. The area in and around Makhmour is a part of the security gap. 

On Sunday, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic) launched a “large-scale” security operation in Nineveh province to pursue remnants of terrorism. The force also launched another large-scale operation in the vast deserts of Anbar province on the borders with Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.