Iraqi security forces have found mass graves that could contain up to 400 bodies in an area recently retaken from the Islamic State group, an Iraqi official has said. The bodies of civilians and security forces were found in an abandoned base near Hawija, a northern town retaken in early October, the Kirkuk governor, Rakan Saed, said on Sunday. He did not say when authorities would start exhuming the bodies.

“Not less than 400 people were executed,” he said, adding that some were clad in the uniform of prisoners condemned to death while others wore civilian clothing. Khalaf Luhaibi, a local shepherd who led troops to the site, said Isis brought captives to the area and shot them or poured oil over them before setting them on fire. The area was strewn with torn clothing and what appeared to be human bones and skulls.

Saad Abbas, a farmer from the area, told Agence France-Presse that during the three years of Isis control the group’s fighters could be seen “driving around in cars with their prisoners. They would shoot them and then throw them to the ground or burn their bodies,” Abbas said. Iraqi forces have driven Isis from nearly all the territory it once controlled. Authorities have already uncovered several mass graves in other newly liberated areas.(theguardian)…[+]