A mass grave containing the remains of 643 civilians has reportedly been discovered near a former ISIS battleground in Iraq – with those inside believed to have been members of a Sunni tribe reportedly targeted by Iraqi militias.
The site was uncovered about five kilometers north of the Iraqi city of Fallujah in Anbar province.
Saudi news outlet Al Arabiya said official sources had confirmed the bodies, found along the side of a road 5km north of Fallujah, belonged to the al-Muhamdah tribe – a group who had disappeared in 2016 and hadn’t been seen since.
Iraqi security forces and the Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi militias, also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), notably liberated Fallujah from the so-called Islamic State in 2016, shortly before the Muhamdah tribe went missing.
The tribe’s disappearance raised suspicions about the PMF’s involvement, prompting human rights organizations to criticize the militias for carrying out rights abuses and revenge killings against Sunnis it perceived of having ties to the Islamic State.
Government officials said that the area was under the control of the PMU militias and ISIS had not reached it, which raises questions about an ethnic cleansing crime that may have taken place in Fallujah by the PMU militias.
The Human Rights department of the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq confirmed that among the most prominent factions of those involved in such crimes are the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, Badr, Asaib Ahl al-Haqq and others who previously committed a series of similar crimes against the people of the provinces during the years 2014 and 2017.
The discovery is similar to an incident that occurred a few months ago, in which another mass grave was found in the north of Babel governorate. It was estimated that more than 200 bodies were found. The government never revealed the circumstances and details of the crime.–DT