MOSUL: Iraqi authorities have removed the remains of 139 people from a large pit believed to contain victims of Daesh, an official said on Sunday.
The Alo Antar hole — a natural desert feature turned into a mass grave by Daesh extremists — is located in Tal Afar, some 70 kilometers (40 miles) west of Mosul in northern Iraq.
It is not known how many bodies were dumped in the pit, but search efforts for other victims are ongoing.
“We have removed the remains of 139 persons and also human body parts,” said Dia Karim, director of the mass graves department at the Foundation of Martyrs — a government institution tasked with finding mass graves and identifying remains.
“They include women and men,” Karim said, adding that “according to testimonies, the victims date back to Daesh rule” or before when Al-Qaeda was present in the area.
Testimonies also suggest, according to Karim, that “the victims are Yazidis, Shiite Turkmen and security forces personnel from Mosul,” the de facto capital of Daesh’s self-declared “caliphate.”
At its peak, the group ruled over swathes of Syria and Iraq, while its fighters committed beheadings, torture and enslavement, turning life into a living hell and leaving behind many mass graves.
In northern Iraq, they committed some of their worst atrocities against the Yazidis — an ethnic and religious minority — including mass executions and sexual slavery.
Ahmed Assadi from the Foundation of Martyrs said the victims “were not buried but dumped in the hole,” whose full depth ranges between 42 and 12 meters.
“Some of the victims had been shot and others were found with their throats cut,” and several bodies were found in body bags.
Assadi added that some of the clothing found on them indicated that they might have been Yazidis or Turkmen, adding that other bodies were found in orange jumpsuits of the kind typically worn by Daesh hostages.
The bodies recovered from Alo Antar were taken to forensic departments to be identified using DNA testing.
The mass grave was discovered after Iraqi forces retook control of the area in 2017, but the work to recover the bodies only started in May of this year.
Iraqi authorities frequently announce the discovery of mass graves of Daesh victims, as well as those containing Daesh extremists themselves and others dating to the rule of dictator Saddam Hussein, but the identification process is slow, costly and complicated.
The United Nations estimates the extremists left behind more than 200 mass graves which might contain as many as 12,000 bodies.
A similar but much larger sinkhole known as Al-Khasfa in northern Iraq is also thought to contain the bodies of many Daesh victims.
In northern Syria, a 50-meter-deep gorge has been used as a dumping site for dead bodies during and after Daesh rule, according to a 2020 Human Rights Watch report.
Iraq recovers remains of 139 likely Daesh victims from mass grave
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Iraq recovers remains of 139 likely Daesh victims from mass grave
- The Alo Antar hole — a natural desert feature turned into a mass grave by Daesh extremists — is located in Tal Afar
Turkiye detains 2013 bombing suspect inside Syria
Twin car bombs ripped through the border town of Reyhanli in Hatay province on May 11, 2013, killing 53 people. At the time, Turkiye accused a group loyal to Syria’s then-President Bashar Assad of carrying out the attacks. Damascus denied any involvement.
Turkiye’s National Intelligence Agency (MIT) found out that Muhammed Dib Korali, who was suspected of planning the attack and providing the bombs, was inside Syria, the source said. The MIT captured him in a cross-border operation into Syria and handed him over to Hatay police, the source added.
Yusuf Nazik, a Turkish national who was sentenced to life in prison for planning the 2013 bomb attack, was also seized inside Syria by the MIT in 2018.
Iranian army takes delivery of 1,000 new drones
The drones were delivered to various locations throughout Iran and are said to have high stealth and anti-fortification abilities, according to Tasnim.
“The drones’ unique features, including a range of over 2,000 kilometers, high destructive power, the ability to pass through defense layers with low Radar Cross Section, and autonomous flight, not only increase the depth of reconnaissance and border monitoring but also boost the combat capability of the army’s drone fleet in confronting distant targets,” the news agency added.
Earlier this month, Iran started two-months-long military exercises which have already included war games in which the elite Revolutionary Guards defended key nuclear installations in Natanz against mock attacks by missiles and drones.
Qatar hands Israel, Hamas “final” draft of Gaza ceasefire deal, official tells Reuters
- A breakthrough was reached in Doha after midnight
JERUSALEM: Mediator Qatar has handed Israel and Hamas a “final” draft of a ceasefire and hostage release agreement designed to end the war in Gaza, an official briefed on the negotiations told Reuters on Monday.
A breakthrough was reached in Doha after midnight following talks between Israel’s spy chiefs, President-elect Trump’s Middle East envoy and Qatar’s prime minister, the official said.
US President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said. US officials are racing to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20.
Biden and Netanyahu discussed efforts underway to reach a deal to halt the fighting in the Palestinian enclave and free the remaining hostages there, the White House said in a statement after the two leaders spoke by telephone.
Biden “stressed the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal,” it said.
Israeli foreign minister said there has been progress on a hostage deal, and that Israel wants a deal, soon we will see if the other side wants the same thing
Israel's Smotrich says Gaza deal taking shape is a "catastrophe"
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of one of the hard-line nationlist religious parties in the ruling coalition, denounced a deal being worked out in Qatar to end the fighting in Gaza and return hostages as a “surrender” deal.
“The deal that is taking shape is a catastrophe for the national security of the state of Israel,” Smotrich said in a statement.
Earlier, an official briefed on the negotiations said Qatar had handed Israel and Hamas a “final” draft of a ceasefire and hostage release agreement designed to end the war in Gaza.
Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and gripped by a humanitarian crisis, and most of its population displaced.
What to know about the latest effort to bring an end to Turkiye’s 40-year Kurdish conflict
- The objective evolved into a campaign for autonomy and rights for Kurds within Turkiye
ANKARA: Talks between politicians from Turkiye’s pro-Kurdish party and jailed Kurdish leaders have been gathering steam as they try to end 40 years of fighting between the state and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
The latest peace effort comes at a time of heightened instability and fundamental changes reshaping the region. These include the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the weakening of the Hezbollah militant movement in Lebanon, and the reconfiguration of power in Syria after the toppling of President Bashar Assad.
The cautious process was initiated in October by Devlet Bahceli, a firebrand ultranationalist who has usually opposed any concessions to Kurdish identity or rights.
Since then, the fall of Assad in a lightning rebel offensive has triggered intensified fighting between Turkish-backed and Kurdish groups in northern Syria.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who have controlled northeast Syria for the past decade, are under attack from the Syrian National Army, an umbrella of militias fighting on behalf of Turkiye, which regards the SDF as an extension of the PKK and wants to neutralize it as an independent fighting force.
Recently, senior members of the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, met jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and Selahattin Demirtas, another imprisoned figurehead of the Kurdish movement. They have also met with the leaders of other political parties to explain their discussions.
What is the PKK?
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has waged an armed insurgency against Turkiye since 1984, initially with the aim of establishing a Kurdish state in the southeast of the country. Over time, the objective evolved into a campaign for autonomy and rights for Kurds within Turkiye.
The conflict between militants and state forces, which has spread beyond Turkiye’s borders into Iraq and Syria, has killed tens of thousands of people. The PKK is considered to be a terror group by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union.
Who is Ocalan?
Abdullah Ocalan, who as a student of political science in Ankara became deeply involved in leftist movements, formed the PKK in 1978 as a Marxist organization. He fled to Syria in 1979, along with other PKK members, where he remained until 1998, when Syria expelled him under intense pressure from Turkiye.
Ocalan was captured in Kenya in 1999 and imprisoned on Imrali island in the Sea of Marmara, where he remains to this day. His death sentence for treason was commuted to a life term in prison after Turkiye abolished the death penalty.
The 75-year-old endures as a symbol for Kurdish independence and rights and continues to wield influence over the Kurdish movement, with past messages relayed through family members or lawyers resonating beyond Turkiye, in Iraq and Syria.
In a message relayed by his nephew in December, Ocalan said he has the power to end the conflict if the conditions are right.
Renewed effort for peace
In October, Bahceli, a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, suggested Ocalan could be granted parole if he renounces violence and disbands the PKK. It was a major shift for the hard-line politician who had previously strongly supported the state’s military action against the militant group and its affiliates in neighboring Syria and rejected any notion of negotiation.
Erdogan appears to have endorsed Bahceli’s stance.
There is a mixed reaction among politicians and analysts to suggestions of a new peace effort. Some describe it it as a historic opportunity, while others strongly oppose any notion of leniency toward Ocalan or the PKK.
A recent attack on Turkiye’s key aerospace company outside of Ankara that killed several people was claimed by the PKK, complicating the debate.
Past peace efforts
There have been several peace efforts between the Turkish state and the PKK over the years, including secret negotiations held in Oslo, Norway from 2009 until 2011. However, none have yielded results.
The last attempt to reach a peace deal took place between 2013 and 2015 with a series of talks between Turkish officials and Ocalan, who declared a ceasefire and withdrew fighters to bases in northern Iraq.
Turkish officials took steps to improve Kurdish rights, including allowing Kurdish-language broadcasts. The process collapsed in July 2015, after a series of violent attacks, including one by the Daesh group that killed 33 pro-Kurdish activists.
Since then, Turkiye has cracked down on its pro-Kurdish movement and has jailed thousands of people, including the former leader of the main pro-Kurdish political party, Selahattin Demirtas, over alleged links to the PKK.
Why now?
The latest peace effort comes at a time when Turkiye and the Kurds are both seeking security to face the challenges in the Middle East.
However, some believe the main aim of the reconciliation effort is for Erdogan’s government to garner Kurdish support for a new constitution that would allow him to remain in power beyond 2028, when his term ends.
Bahceli has openly called for a new constitution, saying it was essential to keep Erdogan in power for Turkiye’s future. Erdogan and Bahceli are reportedly seeking parliamentary support from the DEM.
Biden calls for immediate ceasefire in call with Netanyahu, White House says
- Development takes place as US officials race to reach Gaza ceasefire deal before Biden leaves office
- Parties were “very, very close” to reaching a deal, still have to get it across finish line, says Biden aide
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said, as US officials race to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal before Biden leaves office on Jan. 20.
Biden and Netanyahu discussed efforts underway to reach a deal to halt the fighting in the Palestinian enclave and free the remaining hostages there, the White House said in a statement after the two leaders spoke by telephone.
Biden “stressed the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal,” it said.
Netanyahu updated Biden on progress in the talks and on the mandate he has given his top-level security delegation now in Doha in order to advance a hostage deal, Netanyahu said in a statement.
The two leaders also discussed “the fundamentally changed regional circumstances following the ceasefire deal in Lebanon, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and the weakening of Iran’s power in the region,” the White House said.
Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN’s “State of the Union” program earlier on Sunday that the parties were “very, very close” to reaching a deal, but still had to get it across the finish line.
He said Biden was getting daily updates on the talks in Doha, where Israeli and Palestinian officials have said since Thursday that some progress has been made in the indirect talks between Israel and militant group Hamas.
“We are still determined to use every day we have in office to get this done,” Sullivan said, “and we are not, by any stretch of imagination, setting this aside.”
He said there was still a chance to reach an agreement before Biden leaves office, but that it was also possible “Hamas, in particular, remains intransigent.”
During their call, Netanyahu also thanked Biden for his lifelong support of Israel and “the extraordinary support from the United States for Israel’s security and national defense,” the White House said.
Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and gripped by a humanitarian crisis, and most of its population displaced.
Vice President-elect JD Vance told the “Fox News Sunday” program in an interview taped on Saturday that he expects a deal for the release of US hostages in the Middle East to be announced in the final days of the Biden administration, maybe in the last day or two.
President-elect Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel, has strongly backed Netanyahu’s goal of destroying Hamas. He has promised to bring peace to the Middle East, but has not said how he would accomplish that.
