New mass grave unearthed in Iraq's north from brutal IS rule

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By FARID ABDULWAHED and SAMYA KULLAB

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — A human skull, a pair of worn trousers and a shoe were among the remains unearthed from a mass grave discovered this week in northern Iraq, a remnant of the brutal rule of the Islamic State group, Iraqi officials said Thursday.

The new mass grave was discovered on Monday in the village of Humeydat near the Badoush area west of the city of Mosul, six years after the IS group — at the height of its power — declared a caliphate that stretched across eastern Syria and much of northern and western Iraq.

Dozens of bodies were found buried in a trench stretching hundreds of meters (yards) long. Forensics experts have carried out an initial investigation but the spread of the novel coronavirus has impeded excavations, medical officials in Mosul told The Associated Press.

While an investigation is needed to identify the bodies, many believe they were Shiite convicts taken from the local Badoush prison by IS and killed by the militants, shortly after they seized Mosul in June 2014.



People visit a mass grave for the victims of the Islamic State group in Mosul, Iraq on Thursday, July 1, 2020. A human skull, a pair of worn trousers and a shoe were among the remains unearthed from a mass grave discovered this week in northern Iraq, a remnant of the brutal rule of the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Farid Abdulwahed)


Read more: https://apnews.com/e0532dde3422961b48f3d4b412105bbd

[Botany]

1. Blowback from Dick Cheney's war for oil.

n/t

[Evolve Dammit]

3. Yep. Colin Powell said "if you break it you own it." Well they broke it and ran away richer.

[stillcool]

2. I can't imagine, hope I never find out...

what life looks like to an Iraqi.

The staggering death toll in Iraq
The American public must come to terms with the scale of the violence and chaos we have unleashed
MEDEA BENJAMIN - NICOLAS J.S. DAVIES
MARCH 19, 2018 10:00AM (UTC)
March 19 marks 15 years since the U.S.-U.K invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the American people have no idea of the enormity of the calamity the invasion unleashed. The US military has refused to keep a tally of Iraqi deaths. General Tommy Franks, the man in charge of the initial invasion, bluntly told reporters, “We don’t do body counts.” One survey found that most Americans thought Iraqi deaths were in the tens of thousands. But our calculations, using the best information available, show a catastrophic estimate of 2.4 million Iraqi deaths since the 2003 invasion.

The number of Iraqi casualties is not just a historical dispute, because the killing is still going on today. Since several major cities in Iraq and Syria fell to Islamic State in 2014, the U.S. has led the heaviest bombing campaign since the American War in Vietnam, dropping 105,000 bombs and missiles and reducing most of Mosul and other contested Iraqi and Syrian cities to rubble.

An Iraqi Kurdish intelligence report estimated that at least 40,000 civilians were killed in the bombardment of Mosul alone, with many more bodies still buried in the rubble. A recent project to remove rubble and recover bodies in just one neighborhood found 3,353 more bodies, of whom only 20% were identified as ISIS fighters and 80% as civilians. Another 11,000 people in Mosul are still reported missing by their families.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/03/15/iraq-death-toll-15-years-after-us-invasion#