Mass graves of 113 slain Yazidis found in Iraq

ERBIN, Iraq — Officials in the Sinjar area have found mass graves containing the remains of 113 members of the Yazidi minority killed by the Islamic State group after it captured the area last year, the district chief said on Saturday.

One of the graves was booby-trapped with explosives, which were defused, Khalil said. He said the victims appeared to have been shot in mass executions.

Islamic State views the Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion, as infidels. It abducted thousands of Yazidis, with men reportedly being killed or required to convert to Islam, and Yezidi women and girls enslaved.

A local woman who escaped from the militants two months ago said she expected her male relatives’ bodies were in the grave.

“The day that they occupied our village, the Daesh (Islamic State) gunmen gathered everyone they found there together — about 200 civilians, men, women and children. They took all our money and jewelery and even our mobiles,” said the woman, who gave only her first name, Sahira.

“After that they took all the men, young and old alike, to the valleys nearby, and we heard heavy gunfire for several minutes. They came back with bloodstains on their clothes and they took us women and children to Tel Afar and then to (Raqqa) in Syria,” she added.