The site near the central shrine city of Najaf is one of many in a country that suffered over four decades of bloody conflict and turmoil. Dictator Saddam Hussein went to war with Iran from 1980 to 1988; next came the 1991 Gulf war over Kuwait; then the 2003 US-led invasion, and most recently the Islamic State group's reign of terror until 2017
A forensics expert uses a brush to exhume a skull at the site of a mass grave, discovered by chance when property developers wanted to prepare the land for construction, in the central city of Najaf, on May 18, 2022. Photo: Qassem al-KAABI / AFP
Najaf, Iraq: A noisy backhoe digs up earth to uncover yet another mass grave in Iraq, human remains are exhumed and the forensics experts get to work on their grim task. A skull is freed from a layer of clay, a tibia is placed in a body bag -- all bound for a laboratory to be genetically checked against blood samples from relatives of the disappeared.
The site near the central shrine city of Najaf is one of many in a country that suffered through more than four decades of bloody conflict and turmoil.
Dictator Saddam Hussein went to war with Iran from 1980 to 1988. Next came the 1991 Gulf war over Kuwait, then the 2003 US-led invasion, years of sectarian bloodletting and most recently the Islamic State group's reign of terror until 2017.