Iraqi teams start exhuming mass grave of soldiers in Tikrit

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 31, 2015 file photo, Iraqi security forces and allied Shiite militiamen celebrate in central Tikrit, 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraqi forces battled Islamic State militants holed up in downtown Tikrit, going house to house Tuesday in search of snipers and booby traps, and the prime minister announced security forces had reached the city’s center. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File)

By Associated Press April 7, 2015 1 min read

BAGHDAD (AP) – An Iraqi official says forensic teams in the newly liberated city of Tikrit have started exhuming bodies from a mass grave believed to contain hundreds of soldiers killed by Islamic State militants last year.

Kamil Amin, from Iraq’s Human Rights Ministry, says work started on Monday on eight locations inside Tikrit’s complex of presidential palaces, where much of the killing is believed to have taken place.

Amin told The Associated Press at least 12 bodies were exhumed on Monday.

IS militants overran Saddam Hussein’s hometown last June, capturing around 1,700 soldiers as they were trying to leave Camp Speicher, an air base previously used by U.S. troops on the outskirt of Tikrit.

IS claimed to have killed the troops shortly afterward and posted videos purported to show their mass killings.