Iraqi authorities find remains of more than 50 ISIS victims north of Baghdad

Since the group’s defeat in 2017, authorities have exhumed thousands of bodies from hundreds of mass graves

ISIS once controlled large areas of Iraq, leaving execution sites dotted across the country. AP

Iraqi security authorities have discovered the remains of more than 50 people allegedly killed by ISIS north of Baghdad.

Brig Gen Mohammed Jawad Jaafar of the Federal Police described the area as an “execution site” used to kill young people from the Al Riyadh district outside the northern city of Kirkuk. It was in use during 2014-2017 when the terrorist group controlled swathes of the country’s north and west.

Mr Jaafar said forensic teams will soon collect the remains to conduct DNA testing and return the remains to the victims’ families, he added.

A video taken on site shows skulls and bones scattered across an open agricultural area along with rusty rifle magazines.

ISIS overran nearly one-third of Iraq before it was defeated in late 2017, plunging Iraq into its worst crisis since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime. It left behind hundreds of mass graves that are still being uncovered.

The biggest of these mass graves were in the presidential palace complex built by Saddam Hussein in his home town city of Tikrit, north of Baghdad.

The graves contained the remains of around 1,700 cadets who were captured by the militants as they tried to flee a military base.

The extremists also carried out other mass killings in different areas. Another major massacre occurred outside the northern city of Mosul, where they killed around 600 inmates captured from a prison.

Dozens of mass graves have also been unearthed in and around the city of Sinjar outside Mosul, with victims predominantly from Iraq’s indigenous religious minorities, including the followers of the ancient Yazidi faith seen by the extremists as infidels.

Despite its defeat, ISIS militants still pose threats, hiding in remote and rugged areas and launching small scale attacks and assassinations against security forces, local officials and civilians.

Addressing the general debate of the 74th Session of the General Assembly of the UN late last month, Iraqi President, Barham Salih, warned that his country is still under the militants threat.

"We have defeated the terrorists military...but the war is far from won," Mr Salih said.

Also last month, the Minister of Peshmerga in the Kurdish region, Shawrash Ismaiel, said the group "is not over yet and it still poses threats" for Iraqi army and Peshmerga in areas like Mosul, Diyala and Kirkuk.