ISIS mass grave containing 120 Yazidis and rigged with booby-traps is discovered in Sinjar

A mass grave rigged with explosives, which is believed to hold the remains of more than 120 ISIS victims, has been discovered in northern Iraq.

It is the sixth mass grave which has been discovered in or near the besieged town of Sinjar since it was recaptured from the terror group earlier this month, according to Mahma Khalil, the official responsible for the area.

The bodies in the grave are believed to be Yazidis, the victims of a brutal campaign of massacres, enslavement and rape waged against the minority people.

ISIS overran Sinjar in August 2014 and began persecuting the Yazidi people, who make up most of its inhabitants.

The United Nations has described the attack on the Yazidis, whose faith ISIS considers heretical, as a possible genocide.

The grave site, which is estimated to contain the remains of 123 people, based on accounts from people who witnessed the executions, was surrounded by a large number of bombs, according to Khalil.

Bombs are a key part of both offensive and defensive operations by ISIS, which overran large parts of Iraq last year.

Explosives continue to pose a major threat even after the jihadists are gone and prevent displaced residents from returning home.

The grave, located some six miles west of Sinjar, has not yet been excavated, but the victims were not buried deeply and some of their remains have been exposed by rainwater, Khalil said.

Another mass grave found in the area was believed to hold the bodies of some 80 women aged from 40 to around 80 who one official said may have been executed because they were deemed too old to enslave and rape.

The town of Sinjar was recaptured from ISIS on November 13 in a major operation led by forces from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, backed by air support from a US-led coalition.

Source: Daily Mail