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New mass graves are found in Iraq
Associated Press

KIRKUK, Iraq — Iraqi security forces have found mass graves in an area recently retaken from the Islamic State that could contain up to 400 bodies, an Iraqi official said Sunday.

The bodies of civilians and security forces were found in an abandoned base near Hawija, a northern town retaken in early October, Kirkuk governor Rakan Saed said. He didn’t say when authorities will start exhuming the bodies from the mass graves.

Khalaf Luhaibi, a local shepherd who led troops to the site, said ISIS used to bring captives to the area and shoot them dead or pour oil over them and light them on fire. The area was strewn with torn clothing and what appeared to be human bones and skulls.

Iraqi forces have driven ISIS from nearly all the territory it once controlled. Authorities have already uncovered several mass graves in other newly liberated areas.

US-backed Iraqi forces have driven the extremists from nearly all the territory they once controlled, with some fighting still underway near the western border with Syria.

On Saturday, Iraq’s Prime Minister announced an operation to capture a patch of territory on the western edge of the country near the border with Syria. Hours later, the Iraqi Defense Ministry announced capturing the Romana area, saying the troops will head to the nearby town of Rawa.

According to Ahmed al-Asadi, a spokesman for the Shi’ite-majority paramilitary forces, Rawa is the last Iraqi town held by ISIS , which still controls some scattered small villages in mainly desert areas.

In a separate development, Iraq’s Defense Ministry said a military helicopter crashed Sunday during a training exercise, killing all three crew members on board. The Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter crashed in the central Wasit province. The cause of the accident was not immediately known. The province is about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad.

Associated Press