Iraqi authorities have exhumed the remains of around 100 Kurdish women and children from a mass grave in southern Iraq, suspected victims of former dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime in the 1980s, they said Thursday. those responsible.
The mass grave is located near Tal al-Shaikhia, in Mouthanna province, according to an AFP journalist on site.
Specialized teams began exhuming the remains in mid-December.
“After removing the first layer of earth and the remains became clear, it was discovered that they belonged to women and children dressed in Kurdish clothing,” Diaa Karim, head of the authority, told AFP. Iraqi woman in charge of mass graves.
The victims were probably from Kalar, in the province of Sulaymaniyah, in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan (north), he estimated, putting their number at “at least 100”.
A large number of the victims “were executed here by bullets” fired “at point blank range in the head”, said Mr. Karim, adding that operations to exhume all the bodies were still underway.
Another mass grave was discovered nearby, said Dourgham Kamel, who is part of the authority responsible for exhuming mass graves, near the famous Nougrat Salman prison, where many Kurds and Saddam’s political opponents have passed. Hussein.
President Saddam Hussein, overthrown in 2003 in the wake of the United States’ invasion of Iraq, was hanged before he could stand trial for “genocide” for the deaths of around 180,000 Kurds in a violent campaign against the Kurds, called Anfal, carried out by his regime in 1987 and 1988.
published on December 26 at 9:44 p.m., AFP
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