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