SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Two mass graves were discovered in a village in Tuz Khurmatu, south of Kirkuk, on Thursday, Esta Media Network reporter said.
The reporter said the Iraqi and Kurdish forces have begun to uncover the mass graves containing nine bodies.
He further said the graves are believed to contain bodies of members of Iraq’s federal police, who were kidnapped in the area in the past years.
“A father and his son also kidnapped in the area are believed to be in the mass graves,” he added.
In October, Iraqi forces found a mass grave containing 45 bodies in Riyadh sub-district in southwestern Kirkuk.
After seizing swathes of Iraq in 2014, ISIS militants carried out horrific massacres, including in the northern region of Sinjar where the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi minority has long been rooted.
After Iraqi authorities declared victory over the militants in 2017, scores of mass graves were discovered across the country, including in the Sinjar town of Kojo.
The mass graves in Iraq where militants are believed to have dumped their victims contain up to 12,000 bodies, according to the U.N.
Some 5,000 other bodies are thought to be in mass graves in neighboring Syria.
