A mass grave containing the remains of 35 Ezidis has been found in the northern Iraqi province of Mosul, which was overrun by the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) militants in June, Kurdistan Democratic Party officials have said.
Kurdish peshmerga soldiers discovered the corpses and identified them as being the remains of Ezidis - a Kurdish ethnic community based primarily in northern Iraq - by their clothes, said Said Memo, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), on Wednesday.
"The mass grave included the bodies of women and children," he said.
The people may have been killed when ISIS militants were crossing the region last month, Said added.
Meanwhile, local tribes people said the bodies of inmates seized from Badush prison in July had also been discovered in a mass grave in the al-Humeydat region.
The number of corpses was not disclosed but sources said they were dressed in Badush prison uniforms.
Armed groups linked to the ISIS have captured large amounts of territory in Iraq in recent months, forcing thousands of Iraqis including Turkmen, Arabs and Ezidis to flee.
The ISIS, which already controls parts of Syria, captured the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in June and then surged across the north of the country, taking control of a number of predominantly Sunni cities.
