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
Syrian government says it controls prison in Raqqa with Daesh-linked detainees
- Prison holds detainees linked to Daesh, and witnessed clashes in its vicinity between advancing Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters
Syria’s Interior Ministry said on Friday it had taken over Al-Aktan prison in the city of Raqqa in northeastern Syria, a facility that was formerly under the control of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The prison has been holding detainees linked to the militant group Daesh, and witnessed clashes in its vicinity this week between advancing Syrian government forces and the SDF.
It was not immediately clear how many Daesh detainees remain in Al-Aktan prison as the US military has started transferring up to 7,000 prisoners linked to the militant Islamist group from Syrian jails to neighboring Iraq. US officials say the detainees are citizens of many countries, including in Europe.
“Specialized teams were formed from the counter-terrorism department and other relevant authorities to take over the tasks of guarding and securing the prison and controlling the security situation inside it,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Under a sweeping integration deal agreed on Sunday, responsibility for prisons housing Daesh detainees was meant to be transferred to the Syrian government.
The SDF said on Monday it was battling Syrian government forces near Al-Aktan and that the seizure of the prison by the government forces “could have serious security repercussions that threaten stability and pave the way for a return to chaos and terrorism.”
The US transfer of Daesh prisoners follows the rapid collapse of Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria. Concerns over prison security intensified after the escape on Tuesday of roughly 200 low-level Daesh fighters from Syria’s Shaddadi prison. Syrian government forces later recaptured many of them.
