This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/07/isis-bodies-soldiers-exhumed-mass-grave-tikrit

The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 3 Version 4
Bodies of soldiers killed by Isis exhumed from Tikrit mass grave Bodies of soldiers killed by Isis exhumed from Tikrit mass grave
(about 5 hours later)
An Iraqi official says teams in the newly liberated city of Tikrit have started exhuming bodies from a mass grave believed to contain hundreds of soldiers killed by Islamic State militants last year. Nine months ago, scenes of 1,700 captured soldiers being marched through the streets of Tikrit became a defining emblem of the Isis takeover of northern Iraq. On Tuesday, the whereabouts of the hundreds of men who had been missing ever since finally became clear as rescuers began excavating eight mass graves, not far from where the soldiers were captured.
About 1,700 soldiers were captured by the extremists in June as they were trying to flee Camp Speicher an airbase on the outskirt of Tikrit that previously served as a US military facility following an onslaught that stunned security forces and the military, which melted away as the militants advanced and captured key cities and towns in the country’s north and west. The burial sites appear to confirm fears that all of those still missing have been killed. The atrocity is thought to be one of the worst of its kind since Isis forces began their rampage, vowing to destroy Baghdad’s Shia-led government.
The few soldiers who managed to escape during the carnage in Iraq’s fourth city had spoken at the time of Shia soldiers being separated from Sunnis and the latter being freed. The Shias among them were shown no mercy and their ordeal became a rallying call in the battle to take back Tikrit, which was led by a group of Shia militias, along with the Iraqi military, and ended this week with Isis suffering its most significant defeat yet.
Forensic specialists arrived early on Tuesday at the sites near the Camp Speicher military base from where the men were seized in early June 2014. Until Tikrit was declared retaken late last week, the location of the graves had been widely known, but only two of them were in areas not controlled by the terror group.
Some of the ​gravediggers were colleagues of the missing men, while others were family members
The Guardian visited one mass grave on a barren hilltop overlooking the east of the now ravaged city in late March. The stench of death wafted from the hard-packed soil and a militia checkpoint on a nearby road regularly moved to avoid winds turning the fumes their way.
Around 40 soldiers were thought to have been dumped there. Scores more were dumped in each of the other six to eight sites that have now been partially excavated. Some of the diggers were colleagues of the missing men, while others were family members. There were reports of soldiers and relatives collapsing after believing they had recognised their dead colleagues or kin.
Isis had brutally publicised the deaths of some of the men, whom they forced to lie in the dirt before killing them, expecting the gruesome scenes to spark fear among communities they were trying to conquer. Some bodies were dumped in the nearby Tigris river and others left to rot. But as yet, the full tally of the missing remains unaccounted for.
“The families of the victims were thankful and they visited these mass graves,” said Naim al-Ubaidi, a spokesman for Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, one of the most powerful of the Shia militias involved in the fighting for Tikrit under the banner of Hashd al-Shaabi. “Most of them are grateful that now they can now bury their sons and close that chapter of their lives. People were living in agony not knowing the future of their sons and now they know they are going to rest in peace.”
A sweep of Tikrit, much of which now lies in ruins, has revealed no prison sites and Iraqi officials believe that none of the missing remain alive.
“So far we have found six to eight mass graves and we don’t have the number of victims yet,” said Ubaidi. “We will use DNA to establish the true number.
“We managed to find these mass graves with the help of locals from the area who told us where the killings happened. They also brought us some of the ID cards that fell from these soldiers as they were being dragged away. The majority of the deaths were caused by shots to the head.”
The fall of Tikrit has given Baghdad the chance to boast it is rolling back Isis forces which were only 20 miles from the capital’s western outskirts last August. All along the highway from Baghdad to Tikrit, there is evidence of where the terror group was until the concerted campaign to fight it began in earnest in late February.
Related: Iraqi Sunnis forced to abandon homes and identity in battle for survivalRelated: Iraqi Sunnis forced to abandon homes and identity in battle for survival
Then, the extremist group posted graphic photos that appeared to show its gunmen massacring scores of the soldiers after loading the captives on to flatbed trucks and then forcing them to lay face down in a shallow ditch, their arms tied behind their backs. Other videos showed masked gunmen bringing the soldiers to a bloodstained concrete riverfront inside the presidential palaces complex, shooting them in the head and throwing them into the Tigris. While the gains are undeniable up to 7,000 sq km (2,700 sq miles) has now been cleared, according to Hashd al-Shaabi’s leader, Haidar al-Ameri the dominant military power has often been the militia groups. Iraq’s army, which fled northern Iraq last summer as Isis advanced, has partially regrouped, and played a prominent role in the final battle for Tikrit. However, doubts endure about whether it can take primacy over the militia groups, critics of which say are more loyal to their sect than the state.
A few days after Iraqi security forces and allied Sunni and Shia fighters recaptured the city, government teams started on Monday opening up eight locations inside the complex where much of the killing is believed to have taken place. Hashd al-Shaabi and Iraqi officials have been at pains to say the war is not being fought against Iraq’s Sunnis. However Sunni communities have been transformed into wastelands by the fighting, with militias responsible for at least some of the destruction and subsequent looting.
Kamil Amin, a spokesman for Iraq’s human rights ministry, said at least 12 corpses were exhumed on Monday. He added that DNA samples had been taken from about 85% of the victims’ families and tests on the bodies would begin shortly. Nevertheless, there is evidence of a growing number of Sunni tribes allying with the Shia forces and national army a move that all sides deem to be essential before an expected summer push to take back Mosul.
Iraqi state TV showed teams digging in an open area, helped by bulldozers. as family members stood nearby. The bodies were tagged with yellow tags while weeping soldiers and relatives lit candles and laid flowers alongside the covered remains. One clip showed unearthed skeletal remains still wearing combat boots. “The tribes enrolled with us and fought Isis,” said Ubaidi, whose militia played a prominent role in Iraq’s civil war. “I’m sure the same will apply to Mosul. People in Mosul are quiet now because they are afraid from Isis but once they know such a force is coming, they will join them and fight the terrorists.”
“The work is continuing and we expect to discover more mass graves in different areas,” Amin said. “We expect huge number of bodies to be unearthed.” Meanwhile, Isis militants were holding firm in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, four days after they stormed the area claiming to free its remaining residents from a brutal two-year siege.
During their blitz last year, the extremists also carried out mass killings in other areas. One of those massacres was outside Mosul, the country’s second-largest city, where they forced 600 Shia inmates captured from Badoosh prison to kneel along the edge of a nearby ravine and shot them with automatic weapons. The prisoners had been serving sentences for a range of crimes, from murder and assault to nonviolent offences. In Anbar province, Isis shot dead dozens of pro-government Sunni tribal fighters in public areas after capturing their towns. The UN demanded urgent access to the camp, which is close to the heart of the Syrian capital. Syrian officials suggested that trapped residents would be allowed to leave something that many had been prevented from doing throughout the blockade.
The onslaught in June 2014 by Is is threw Iraq into its worst crisis since the 2011 US troop withdrawal. The militants also targeted Iraq’s indigenous religious minorities, including Christians and followers of the ancient Yazidi faith, forcing tens of thousands from their homes.
Since then, the Isis has carved out a self-styled caliphate in the large area straddling the Iraqi-Syrian border.
In early August, the US launched air strikes on the militants in Iraq, in an effort to help Iraqi forces fight back against the growing threat. Isis still holds the northern Iraqi province of Ninevah and most of the western province of Anbar, in addition to small areas north of Baghdad, along with a large swath of land in neighbouring Syria.