Iraqi security forces have found a mass grave in the country’s northern province of Nineveh, which contains the remains of 23 high-ranking commanders of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group believed to have been executed by fellow militants for disobeying orders to carry out bombings and other acts of violence.

Colonel Saleh Sheef, an official from the media bureau of the Nineveh Operations Command, told Arabic-language Basnews news agency that federal police forces had made the discovery south of Mosul, located some 400 kilometers north of the capital Baghdad.

Sheef added that identity cards showing the militants’ first names, surnames and ranks were recovered from the site.

Another Izadi mass grave unearthed in Iraq

Meanwhile, local search teams in Nineveh province have found a mass grave containing the bodies of dozen members of the Izadi minority, who are believed to have been executed by Daesh Takfiri terrorists when they were in control of an area there.

Arabic-language al-Forat news agency reported that the mass grave was located in the industrial neighborhood of Sinjar town. The site has been closed off to the public, and local authorities are waiting for international teams and competent officials to arrive and launch an investigation.

On August 15, an official at the Endowments and Religious Affairs Ministry of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government said more than 3,000 members of the Izadi minority had remained unaccounted for ever since Daesh overran their hometowns in northern Iraq back in 2014.

In this file picture, an Iraqi man inspects a mass grave near the town of Sinjar, situated over 400 kilometers northwest of the capital Baghdad. (Photo by AFP)

“The fate of 3,102 Izadis remain unknown since Daesh terrorists attacked our towns and cities in mid-2014,” Khairi Bozarni said at a conference on the Izadi genocide in Erbil, capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.

Bozarni added that more than 2,500 Izadi Kurds lost their lives at the hands of Daesh terrorists, while another 6,000 – mostly women and children – were abducted.

He noted that 66 places of worship for the Izadis had also been desecrated or destroyed by the terror group.

“What’s more, more than 100,000 Izadis have fled [the] Kurdistan region and Iraq in general since the summer of 2014,” Bozarni said.

He also said that Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani had secured the release of more than 2,000 abducted Izadis.

Back in August 2014, Daesh terrorists overran the town of Sinjar, killing, raping, and enslaving large numbers of Izadi Kurds.

The region was recaptured in November 2015, during an operation by Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Izadi fighters.