Digging Up Mosul’s Dark Past
Iraqi officials began digging up a mass grave outside of Mosul thought to contain thousands of the victims of the Islamic State (IS), project director Ahmed al-Assadi confirmed on Sunday. The initial stage, which began on August 10, is surface-level excavation at the Khasfa site. Reporters touring the region reported human skulls exposed in the sand, highlighting the somber nature of the excavation.
Khasfa, close to Mosul the former IS stronghold of its self-proclaimed caliphate has long been held to be among Iraq’s biggest mass graves. Exact figures are unknown, yet a 2018 report by the United Nations estimated that the site might hold thousands of corpses. Official estimates put the victims at about 4,000 today, though it is likely that the true number is far greater.
Victims and Challenges in Identification
The location is said to have a combination of victims, ranging from IS-executed soldiers, Yazidi minority members, and common residents of Mosul. Excavation is especially difficult with the presence of underground sulphur water, which has rendered the ground porous and could have destroyed the human remains, making it difficult to conduct DNA identification processes.
Assadi stressed that additional research and close planning will be required prior to extending excavation at the site, a sinkhole that is some 150 meters deep and 110 meters wide.
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IS Legacy of Mass Violence
Khasfa is one of the IS’s most brutal massacres, with 280 reported executions on a single day in 2016, most of whom were interior ministry staff. While expanding rapidly from 2014, IS overran huge swaths of Iraq and Syria, imposing hardline interpretations of Islamic law and carrying out widespread brutality.
The United Nations calculates that IS buried more than 200 mass graves in Iraq, which could contain up to 12,000 bodies. Apart from IS-period graves, Iraqi officials are still discovering Saddam-era sites, a testament to several decades of mass violence in the country.
As Iraq grapples with such dismal legacies, excavations such as Khasfa serve not only to identify victims’ remains but to chronicle the atrocities for history, justice, and closure for the families who remain.
