On May 21, Iraq’s Mass Graves Directorate and the Medico-Legal Directorate, with the support of the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by ISIS (UNITAD) began exhuming the mass grave of Alu Antar Well in Tal Afar.

The U.S.-based Yezidi non-governmental organization Yazda said in a press statement that the mass grave is believed to contain the remains of Yezidi men who disappeared after being initially taken by ISIS with their families to Kasr Al-Mihrab in Tal Afar.

According to different sources interviewed by Yazda, the grave could contain the remains of 600 to 700 people, some of whom were executed before the ISIS occupation by previous extremist groups. The total number of victims will only be confirmed once all remains have been exhumed and identified.

“We have been advocating for the exhumation of this specific mass grave for almost a decade. We believe that it will give answers and some closure to many Yezidi families, as well as to families from other communities. We commend Iraq for starting this process while UNITAD is still operating in the country,” Executive Director at Yazda Natia Navrouzov said in a public statement.

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Iraq has decided to end the UNITAD mission by September 2024 because it has not provided evidence to Iraqi courts.

“We also encourage the authorities to carry on exhumations after September 17, 2024, in line with the highest standards and ensure that the knowledge and technology provided by the UN does not go to waste,” Navrouzov added.

Yazda said the exhumation of this site might take two months.

In August 2014, thousands of Yezidi women and children were enslaved by ISIS fighters, and hundreds are still missing. Moreover, ISIS killed thousands of Yezidis, an atrocity widely recognized as genocide.