Iraq mourns 78 people executed by ISIS
Iraqi army vehicles carrying coffins of 78 victims executed in 2014 by ISIS terrorists. Photo: AFP
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi authorities organized Tuesday funeral ceremonies for 78 victims executed in 2014 by ISIS terrorists.
The bodies were identified through DNA tests after they were found in a mass grave near Badoush prison in the northern part of the country.
In June 2014, during its control of large areas in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria, ISIS militants transported about 600 men detained in the Badoush prison in trucks to a valley before they killed them.
On Tuesday, funeral ceremonies took place in Baghdad and another in Najaf, in central Iraq, to bury 78 of the victims of Badoush prison, according to AFP.
Coffins of the victims covered with the Iraqi flag were placed in army cars and transported to the Martyr’s Monument in Baghdad.
Director General of the Forensic Medicine Department, Zaid Ali Abbas, said that 78 out of the 605 cases were identified as a first stage.
ISIS carried out successive attacks in 2014 and committed genocide crimes in Iraq, according to the United Nations, one of the most serious crimes under international law.
In December 2021, a funeral took place in northern Iraq, where 41 victims of the Yazidi minority were buried, who were also found in a mass grave.
Iraq is still uncovering mass graves dating back to the era of Saddam Hussein’s regime, which was overthrown after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.