Work began on Wednesday to exhume the remains of hundreds of Kurdish civilians from three mass graves in Shaikiya, near Iraq’s border with Saudi Arabia. 

The graves were discovered in April 2018 near the town 80 km southwest of Samawa, capital of Muthanna province. 

Excavation teams believe there are around 80 to 100 bodies in the first grave alone. 

The graves contain the remains of hundreds of Kurdish civilians, including women and children, killed during Saddam Hussein’s campaign of extermination in the late 1980s known as the Anfal, launched to punish the Kurds for rebelling against his regime. 

“There are around 400 bodies in these three mass graves and, once they are exhumed, we will take them to the autopsy department in Baghdad for DNA testing,” Sirwan Jalal, who is in charge of the exhumation at the Ministry of Martyrs and Anfal Affairs, told Rudaw.

Extreme summer temperatures mean excavation teams cannot work during the day. They begin digging at 3am and finish at 10am.

Photos: Halkawt Aziz / Rudaw