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A mass grave composed of relics of 60 civilians, including women, killed by ISIS, was found in western Mosul,” a local source from Nineveh province has said.

“Security troops discovered a mass grave in al-Shifa district in western Mosul,” the source told AlSumaria News on Wednesday. “The grave contained relics of 60 civilians, including elderly people and 23 women who worked as employees and lawyers as their ID cards found in their possession showed.”

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said, “ISIS shot the civilians dead in the head. They were transferred to forensic medicine department in Wadi Hajar to identify them and hand over their bodies to their relatives.”

Several mass graves were found in ISIS-held areas since the Iraqi government, backed by a U.S.-led military coalition, launched a major security offensive in October 2016 to recapture the city of Mosul, ISIS’s largest stronghold in Iraq.

Iraqi commanders say they at least 90 percent of territories in western Mosul is under Iraqi troops control, predicting to retake the city before the end of May. Only two districts besides the Old City are under ISIS control.

Recently, the paramilitary fighters, consisting of some 40 mainly Shia Muslim groups, reached the Syrian border in the north on Monday, and are further tightening the noose around ISIS in the strategic town of al-Ba'aj, PressTV reported.

"The Hashd al-Sha’abi forces just reached the Iraqi-Syrian border," announced Secretary General of Iraq’s Badr Organization Hadi al-Ameri on Monday, adding that their fighters were already stationed in the border village of Um Geris.

The PMU forces reportedly number more than 100,000 fighters. Iraqi authorities say there are between 25,000 and 30,000 Sunni tribal fighters within their ranks in addition to Kurdish Izadi and Christian units.

The fighters have played a major role in the liberation of ISIS-held areas to the south, northeast and north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, ever since the terrorists launched an offensive in the country in June 2014.

The full liberation of Mosul would spell the end for the Iraqi half of ISIS's so-called caliphate.