Overview

• Work began on August 9 under the Martyrs Foundation with teams collecting only visible human remains and surface evidence
• Full exhumation is delayed until specialist units secure the site against sulphurous water and unexploded ordnance
• Investigators will establish a victims database and start gathering DNA samples from families after the initial 15 days of work
• Witness and family accounts suggest the pit may hold thousands of bodies, potentially Iraq’s largest modern mass grave, though numbers remain unverified
• Officials believe many remains belong to Iraqi army and police personnel as well as Yazidi civilians killed by IS during its 2014–2017 campaign