⭕ Iraqi officials have begun excavating the Al-Khasfa mass grave south of Mosul, launching the first phase on Sunday, according to the state-run Iraqi News Agency.

 ⭕ Iraqi officials have begun excavating the Al-Khasfa mass grave south of Mosul, launching the first phase on Sunday, according to the state-run Iraqi News Agency.

Ninevah governor Abdul Qadir al-Dakhil said ISIS and other extremist groups killed about 20,000 people during their occupation from 2014 to 2017, describing the site as “a crime that shocks the mind and conscience.”

Estimates put the number of victims in Al-Khasfa at around 3,000, with a lawyer telling the Associated Press that roughly 70 percent of the remains are believed to belong to Iraqi army and police personnel, alongside Yazidis.

Human Rights Watch has noted that Iraq has one of the world’s highest numbers of missing persons, between 250,000 and 1 million, many buried in mass graves across the country.