Another Anfal mass graves of blindfolded children and pregnant women found in Iraq
Baghdad – North-Press Agency
Ziad Ismail
Numbers of skeletons belonging to the victims of Anfal massacres were found about 100 km from the city of Samawah in the desert of Nigret al-Salman, within a narrow area of about 5×9 m.
Anfal campaign was a genocide operation carried out by the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in 1988 against the Kurds in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, as the campaign was led by Ali al-Majid, who was the secretary of the northern office of al-Baath Party.
According to statistics announced by the Martyrs Foundation in the Iraqi government and forensic medicine, the number of those found inside this grave were up to 171 women and children, most of the women were blindfolded.
Pregnant women and baby milk bottles
“All of them were women and children,” said Zaid Ali, the director of the Iraqi forensic medicine. He pointed out that there were pregnant women among those bodies, in addition to finding bottles of baby milk through the process of excavation by the team.
Ali added that they would conduct DNA tests to the bodies, and that “most heinous crimes were practiced against the victims, as the bodies showed.”
Moreover, the director of forensic medicine said that in the coming days they will be checking the results of which the final ones will be announced within the next two months and the bodies will be handed over to their families.
Two other mass graves have yet to be found
The director of mass graves operations at Martyrs Foundation Diyaa Karim, said that they have formed a team composed of the directors of the Martyrs Foundation, the Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal affected people in Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), in addition to workers in forensic medicine to uncover the massacres’ facts.
Karim pointed out that their goal is to transfer all the remnants of the victims to their families or relatives in Kurdistan region, “to show the atrocities which the former regime had committed against its people,” adding that there are two other mass graves in the same place, but high temperatures hinder the work of the team.
It’s worth mentioning that the number of victims of Anfal campaign against the Kurdish people exceeded 100.000 people, and the bodies which were buried about thirty years ago are still being found in different parts of Iraq.