BC Online :
Iraqi forensic experts are investigating a mass grave that was discovered by troops advancing towards the Islamic State-held city of Mosul.
The Iraqi military has said the grave, in the grounds of an agricultural college in the town of Hamam al-Alil, contains about 100 decapitated bodies.
Most have been reduced to skeletons, so it is unclear who the victims were.
IS militants have carried out many mass killings and have been accused of fresh atrocities in the area in recent weeks. They are being forced to retreat to Mosul, the last major IS urban stronghold in Iraq, in an offensive by pro-government forces that began on 17 October.
Iraqi troops found the mass grave after noticing a strong smell while advancing into the town, about 30km (19 miles) south of Mosul, on Monday.
A bulldozer sent to the site, beside an earthen embankment, unearthed bones and decomposed bodies, along with scraps of clothing and plastic bags.
It was not immediately known if the victims were security forces personnel or civilians. But video footage from the Associated Press showed a soldier holding up a child’s stuffed animal found at the grave.
A member of the Nineveh provincial council, Abdul Rahman al-Waggaa, said IS militants had used the agricultural college as “a killing field” for hundreds of people in the days before troops, police and militiamen retook the town.
“They would torture them inside and then take them out of the neighbourhood and either shoot them or slit their throats,” he told Reuters news agency.
Iraqi forensic experts are investigating a mass grave that was discovered by troops advancing towards the Islamic State-held city of Mosul.
The Iraqi military has said the grave, in the grounds of an agricultural college in the town of Hamam al-Alil, contains about 100 decapitated bodies.
Most have been reduced to skeletons, so it is unclear who the victims were.
IS militants have carried out many mass killings and have been accused of fresh atrocities in the area in recent weeks. They are being forced to retreat to Mosul, the last major IS urban stronghold in Iraq, in an offensive by pro-government forces that began on 17 October.
Iraqi troops found the mass grave after noticing a strong smell while advancing into the town, about 30km (19 miles) south of Mosul, on Monday.
A bulldozer sent to the site, beside an earthen embankment, unearthed bones and decomposed bodies, along with scraps of clothing and plastic bags.
It was not immediately known if the victims were security forces personnel or civilians. But video footage from the Associated Press showed a soldier holding up a child’s stuffed animal found at the grave.
A member of the Nineveh provincial council, Abdul Rahman al-Waggaa, said IS militants had used the agricultural college as “a killing field” for hundreds of people in the days before troops, police and militiamen retook the town.
“They would torture them inside and then take them out of the neighbourhood and either shoot them or slit their throats,” he told Reuters news agency.
