Iraq’s largest mass grave: Al-Khasfa Pit excavation begins

Shafaq News/ Authorities in Iraq’s Nineveh province have launched efforts to reopen the Al-Khasfa Pit, a mass grave containing thousands of ISIS victims, Governor Abdul Qadir Al-Dakhil announced on Wednesday.

Speaking at the site south of Mosul, Al-Dakhil described the pit as “the largest mass grave in Iraq and possibly in the world,” underscoring the urgency of exhuming the remains and identifying the victims. “The excavation is being coordinated with the Nineveh Court of Appeal to ensure proper legal procedures,” he remarked.

Despite financial constraints within Iraq’s Martyrs’ Foundation, the governor pledged that the province would take full responsibility for funding the initiative. He also estimated that the reopening could take up to a year but insisted on immediate action.

“We have a clear roadmap, and local and international bodies will closely monitor this project… We cannot allow families to wait any longer for answers,” Al-Dakhil asserted, revealing that work will also extend to other mass graves in Tal Afar and Sinjar.

Initial reports, he said, suggest that ISIS carried out large-scale executions at the site, killing as many as 2,000 people per day during the period of ISIS control between 2014 and 2017.

Earlier in February, Iraqi authorities received the remains of several residents of Nineveh executed by ISIS militants in 2016.