Iraqi Kurds uncover mass graves in formerly IS-held Sinjar

Associated Press

Sunday, Nov. 15, 2015 | 7:27 a.m.

Iraqi Kurds uncover mass graves in formerly IS-held Sinjar

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Kurdish fighters have uncovered two mass graves outside Sinjar, a northern Iraqi town near the Syrian border that was ruled by the Islamic State group for more than a year before the extremists were driven out last week.

Qasim Samir, the Iraqi Kurdish director of intelligence in Sinjar, said Sunday that the first grave contained 78 bodies of elderly women. A second grave contained between 50 and 60 bodies of men, women and children.

The Islamic State group captured Sinjar during its rampage across northern Iraq in the summer of 2014 and killed and captured thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority, including women forced into sexual slavery.

Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes pushed the extremist group out of the town in a two-day operation last week.