Four mass graves identified in Kirkuk, tied to Baath era and ISIS rule

KIRKUK — Authorities have located four new mass grave sites in Kirkuk governorate, with initial assessments suggesting some date back to Saddam Hussein’s regime and others to the period of ISIS control, according to Iraq’s Mass Graves Directorate.

“We were notified by security agencies in Kirkuk about four potential mass graves,” Zirgham Kamil, deputy head of the directorate, told 964media. “One is located in the industrial area, another in the Yayychi subdistrict, both of which are believed to date back to the former regime. The other two are in the Khazra neighborhood and the village of Degmata in Rashad subdistrict, and they are believed to be from the ISIS period.”

Kamil said the sites have been marked but not yet excavated. “This is the first step — just identifying the sites. Excavation will begin soon by our teams,” he said, adding that exact coordinates are being withheld to prevent civilians from approaching the areas.

The Mass Graves Directorate has so far documented 314 mass graves across Iraq — 160 attributed to the Baathist regime and 154 to ISIS. Many of the ISIS-era sites contain the remains of Yazidi victims. Of the total, 81 graves remain unexcavated.

ISIS declared a caliphate in 2014, seizing control of large areas in northern and western Iraq, including Mosul and Tikrit, before being expelled by Iraqi forces, Kurdish Peshmerga, and a U.S.-led coalition in 2017. While its territorial hold ended with the fall of its last Syrian stronghold in 2019, the group’s remnants continue to pose a threat in some areas.

A 2024 report from the Strategic Center for Human Rights in Iraq estimates that up to 400,000 people — including Christians, Kurds, and Shiites — may be buried in mass graves across the country. Between 250,000 and 1 million people are still listed as missing, many believed to have been executed during periods of mass violence.

In 2007, Iraq designated May 16 as National Day of Mass Graves. The Law on the Protection of Mass Graves, amended in 2015, governs investigations, and the International Commission on Missing Persons has worked alongside Iraqi authorities for over a decade to address the issue.