Remains of 104 Yazidis killed by ISIL laid to rest in Iraq | Al Jazeera

More than 100 members of the Yazidi minority massacred by the ISIL (ISIS) armed group six years ago were laid to rest at a mass funeral in a northern Iraqi village.

Soldiers could be seen carrying coffins to the burial ground in Kocho, in Sinjar province, on Saturday as crowds gathered to mourn the dead.


The bodies were exhumed from mass graves last year in an operation coordinated by the United Nations before being sent to the capital Baghdad for identification.

Iraq’s Martyrs’ Foundation has been overseeing the process and identified the 104 victims using DNA samples taken from their relatives.

The government agency has so far exhumed 16 mass graves of a total of 73 suspected sites.

One relative of a Yazidi who was killed, attending the funeral in Kocho, said some of the victims will not be found. “Some of these bones don’t exist any more because floods swept them away,” said Obeid Khalaf.