HABBANIYAH, Iraq: Iraqi soldiers have discovered two shallow graves containing the bodies of people executed by the Daesh group in the western desert town of Rutba, officials said Thursday.
“The Iraqi army found two mass graves in Rutba containing the bodies of members of the security forces and of civilians,” a captain in the army’s 1st division told AFP.
He said the first indications suggested the victims had been executed by Daesh when the jihadist group took control of the town in mid-2014.
Rutba, a small town of significant strategic value, lies on the road to Jordan, about 390 kilometers (245 miles) west of Baghdad.
The mayor of the town, which was retaken from Daesh in May last year, said one grave was found on a plot in a central neighborhood that had been used to dump hospital waste while the other was located on Rutba’s southern edge.
“The bodies we have seen have bullet impacts... We don’t know the exact number of bodies because we are leaving this work to a forensic team but we expect there are about 25,” Imad Meshaal said.
Rutba is very isolated in the desert of Anbar, a vast western province that has long been a Sunni insurgent stronghold and has borders with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria.
Daesh militants have attacked the town several times since the security forces retook control of it.
Dozens of mass graves have been found across areas of Iraq that Daesh seized in 2014 and have since been retaken by the security forces.
Mass graves found in western Iraq
Mass graves found in western Iraq
Sudan paramilitary advances near Ethiopia border
- Sudan’s Kordofan region, where the SPLM-N has its other foothold in the Nuba Mountains, is currently the war’s fiercest battleground
KHARTOUM: Sudanese paramilitary forces have advanced on army positions near the southeastern border with Ethiopia, according to the group and an eyewitness who spoke to AFP Wednesday.
Control over Sudan’s southeastern Blue Nile State, bordering both Ethiopia and South Sudan, is split between the army and a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, allies of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
In a statement released Tuesday, the SPLM-N, led by Abdelaziz Al-Hilu, said they had “liberated the strategic city of Deim Mansour and areas of Bashir Nuqu and Khor Al-Budi.”
Since April 2023, the Sudanese army has been at war with the RSF. In February of last year, the RSF announced a surprise alliance with the SPLM-N, securing experienced fighters, land and border access.
Deim Mansour lies between the SPLM-N stronghold Yabus, birthplace of their deputy commander Joseph Tuka, and the army-held town of Kurmuk, which hosts a large army contingent.
Babiker Khaled, who fled to Kurmuk, told AFP that SPLM-N fighters began amassing in the forests around Deim Mansour on Sunday.
“The shelling began on Monday, they entered the city on Tuesday,” he said, adding that “some people fled into Ethiopia, others arrived in Kurmuk.”
From its foothold in the southern Blue Nile, a thin strip of land jutting south between Ethiopia and South Sudan, the SPLM-N maintains reported supply lines from both countries, building on decades-old links.
Close to three years of war in Sudan have left tens of thousands dead and around 11 million displaced, creating the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
It has also torn the country apart, with the army holding the center, north and east of Sudan while the RSF and its allies dominate the west and parts of the south.
Sudan’s Kordofan region, where the SPLM-N has its other foothold in the Nuba Mountains, is currently the war’s fiercest battleground.
On Tuesday, the army broke a paramilitary siege on South Kordofan state capital Kadugli, days after breaking another on the nearby city of Dilling.
